


Stuck Here With You

by KittenAmos25



Category: Shadowhunters (TV), The Society (TV 2019)
Genre: Angst, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, Learning sign language, M/M, Minor Violence, Psychopath
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-10-29
Updated: 2020-11-19
Packaged: 2021-01-06 08:55:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 13
Words: 29,323
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21223937
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KittenAmos25/pseuds/KittenAmos25
Summary: When the teens food supply starts to run low, Grizz decides to get a group together to venture into the woods in search of land to farm. The last thing they expected to find in the middle of the woods was a city.





	1. One

**Author's Note:**

> Becca is not going to be pregnant in this story.
> 
> The Shadowhunter cast will not be in the first couple of chapters.

** Chapter 1 **

Grizz slowly opened his eyes to find the sun streaming in through the windows, creating bright patterns on the carpeted floor. Glancing at the clock on the nightstand, he groaned at the early hour and pulled the covers up higher around him. He closed his eyes, attempting to get a few more minutes of sleep before hearing a soft sigh behind him. Memories of last night came flooding back to him and a small smile appeared on his face. Rolling over, Grizz came face-to-face with the sleeping redheaded boy beside him.

Sam’s eyes were still closed as he breathed deeply, relaxed. All the muscles in his face and body were totally at peace as he dreamed on, blocking out the dangers and questions of the outside world that they were currently trapped in.

Careful not to wake the boy, Grizz ran a hand gently through Sam’s soft, dark hair as he bit his lip gently. He, along with three other volunteers, were going to be trekking off into the woods in just a couple of days to search for land to farm. He had just gotten Sam, and he felt a tightness in his chest at the thought of having to leave him for a few weeks.

Hearing the sounds of some of his housemates moving around downstairs, Grizz decided he should probably be getting up. He still had some things to organize before leaving for his trip.

Getting to his feet, Grizz tucked the covers around Sam’s shoulders before getting himself dressed and heading downstairs to find Bean standing in the dining room with her back towards him. Spread out around the table were stacks of toilet paper, a few cans of food, some granola bar boxes, and a couple first aid kits.

“Are those for the trip?” Grizz asked, entering the room.

Bean glanced at him over her shoulder and sent him a small smile in greeting. A dark blue hijab was wrapped around her head. “Yeah,” she nodded before turning back to the supplies. “I’m trying to work out how much we should pack.”

Brushing his hair out of his eyes, Grizz stepped up next to her at the table. “Where are Gwen and Mickey?” he asked.

“I told them to start getting some stuff together too. I figured we could all meet up at the school gym later today and divide everything up between us.”

“Sounds good,” he said with a nod.

“Are you guys hungry?”

Grizz and Bean turned around to find Will entering the room with two plates of hot food. As the smell hit him, Grizz felt his stomach growl.

“Yeah, thanks.”

As Grizz took the plates from Will, Bean cleared them a spot at the table to eat.

* * *

Grizz and Bean were just starting to pack up the supplies they had gathered to bring to the gym later when they heard footsteps coming down the staircase.

A huge grin grew on Sam’s face when he locked eyes with Grizz. Getting to his feet, he couldn’t help but return the bright smile.

“Good morning,” Grizz greeted when Sam had ventured close enough to read his lips.

“Morning,” Sam returned, signing the word as well and Grizz made a point to store the gesture into his memory for later use.

Bean sent a small smile Sam’s way before turning to address Grizz. “I could take these bags by the school if you want. I made plans to meet up with Kelly before we leave. She’s going to help me go through some basic first aid stuff in case something goes wrong on the trip.”

“Probably a good idea,” he noted as he watched her lift the strap of the heavy duffle bag over her shoulder. “I’ll meet you there in a few hours.”

Once Bean had made her way out of the dining room and towards the front door, Grizz turned back to Sam to find a slight frown on the boy’s face.

“When are you leaving?” he asked, slurring his words slightly.

“Tomorrow, probably. I’m hoping to make it back before it starts snowing,” Grizz explained.

He hated seeing the sad look in Sam’s bright blue eyes. It made his stomach twist uncomfortably.

“Hey,” he started, hoping to get the sad look on the boy’s face to falter. “Are you hungry? Will made breakfast.”

The side of Sam’s mouth perked up a little at the mention of food and he nodded his head before Grizz turned to lead the way into the kitchen.

“–And what authority do I have to tell them to do that?” Grizz overheard Allie’s voice as he drew closer to the kitchen. “The fact that my sister died five months ago and that I inherited her job?”

“If you’re so worried about it, why don’t you call elections?” Will spoke up just as Sam and Grizz entered the room.

“What?” Allie asked, sending him a disapproving look.

“You want the authority?” Will continued. “Ask for them to give it to you.”

“Hey, sorry to interrupt,” Grizz spoke hesitantly, and waited until Will and Allie looked up before gesturing towards the redheaded boy that was just a step behind him. “Sam hasn’t eaten yet. Is there any breakfast left?”

“Sure.” Allie pushed away from the island she had been leaning against, obviously thankful for the subject change. “Take a seat, Sam,” she added, pointing towards one of the chairs on the other side of the granite surface and then made a gesture with her hands that Grizz assumed meant ‘sit’ in sign language. Allie then turned away from the group of boys to retrieve a plate from the cabinet and got to work filling it with food.

“So . . . We’re holding elections for a new Mayor?” Grizz asked slowly, sensing some turmoil between the two people on the other side of the cabinetry.

“Possibly.” Will drowned out the word as he eyed the woman’s stiff posture at the question. “She’s feeling a bit anxious about the idea of having to force teenagers to work in a field if you end up finding land for us to use.”

“But we’d be asking them to pick sides. It would be us against them,” Allie stressed her point as she slid Sam’s plate across the counter towards him. “With everything else that is going on right now; winter right upon us and the food supply starting to run low . . . The last thing we need right now is someone else possibly moving into the leadership role.”

* * *

After Allie and Will had left the two boys alone in the kitchen, Grizz got up to get a jug of apple juice out of the fridge. Turning back to look at Sam, he made sure the boy was looking at him before shaking the container in the air in a silent offer before pulling two glasses out for them.

“How long are you going to be gone?” Sam asked once Grizz set the glasses down in front of them.

“Hopefully just a week,” Grizz said, leaning against the island, “but we are packing for two just in case.”

Sam had turned his head to look down at his half empty plate, so Grizz rested his hand on his wrist to grab his attention.

“Look, Sam . . . I think we need to talk about what happened last night.”

Sam sat up straighter in his seat at this, concern flashing across his face. “What about it?”

Grizz waved his hands at the scared look on the boy’s face. “No, I don’t mean . . . Last night was great and I certainly don’t regret what happened between us or anything, it’s just . . . I think we should talk about what this means, you know? Like, what are we now?” he stuttered through, hoping Sam was able to catch everything that he was saying.

Sam glanced down at the granite in front of him, tracing the patterns with a finger. “I care about you, Grizz. I was hoping this meant we were more than friends.”

“I want that too,” Grizz admitted, and bit his lip gently before continuing. “It’s just . . . I haven’t come out as gay yet, Sam, and I don’t think I’m quite ready to go public just yet.”

Sam shook his head quickly. “I don’t care. Honestly, I am a little worried about how Campbell will take the news.”

“Your brother? Why–”

“I told you, he’s a psychopath. He has tormented me for years . . . He hates to see me happy.”

“You think he would do something to us?” Grizz asked slowly, studying Sam’s features for signs of fear but the boy simply shrugged in response.

Grizz thought about it for a moment before nodding his head. “Okay, we’ll just keep this between us for now.”

“Is it okay if I tell Becca?” Sam asked. The sparkle had returned to the boy’s eyes as he mentioned his best friend. “She won’t tell anyone.”

Seeing Sam’s face light up again after the conversation they had just had, Grizz couldn’t help but nod his head in agreement. Anything to keep this boy of his smiling.


	2. Two

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Anything in italics is just being signed (not spoken).

**Chapter 2**

The next morning arrived far too quickly for Grizz’s liking. The last time he had gone into the woods with a group of kids, one of them didn’t made it back to town alive. Even though he knew the incident wasn’t his fault, he still felt a huge weight on his shoulders to make sure that nothing similar was going to happen on this expedition.

A small group of teenagers was gathered by the forest’s edge when he had arrived at the location where Bean, Gwen, Mickey and him had agreed to meet up yesterday. As he waited for the rest of his expedition group to arrive, the number of gathered kids that had come to see them off had gradually grown bigger. Some of them had even created signs to wish them luck on their trip. This only heightened Grizz’s anxiety.

The crowd of students were supposed to be an encouragement, to let them know that they appreciated what they were setting out to do, but seeing all of the hopeful looks only made Grizz feel antsy. What if they failed? What if there was nothing out there but trees? They would have to return to New Ham and deliver the devastating news that they were all going to eventually starve to death.

Needing to get away from crowd of optimistic teens for a while, Grizz snuck away to a small grassy area that was behind a few bushes to try to get himself together. He was just sliding his heavy pack off his back when he heard the sound of crunching leaves behind him and a frown crawled onto his face. All he wanted was a few minutes to himself.

Turning around, Grizz locked eyes with the dark, redheaded boy that was coming towards him and instantly felt his irritation wash away.

“Sam,” he greeted, smiling brightly at the boy.

“You have everything you need for your trip?” Sam asked and signed as he came to a stop a few feet away from him, a sad smile playing at the corners of his mouth.

“Yeah,” he nodded and glanced down at his bag resting on the grass for moment. “All set.”

Grizz didn’t miss the way Sam’s eyes sparkled with unshed tears before the boy turned away to look at the ground. His heart clenched at the sight.

They may have been going to the same high school since freshman year, but him and Sam had barely spoken to each other in the past. They had both ran in different groups. Joining the football team had made Grizz instantly part of the popular crowd, while Sam; being both deaf and openly gay, had had a tougher time getting through the school years.

The first time they had really spoken to each other was at Prom five months ago, and that was only because of the alcohol that had been in Grizz’s system giving him the courage to sit down next to him. Still, Thanksgiving was the first time the two of them had really started getting to know each other.

They had ended up spending most of Thanksgiving together, first at the library and then visiting Grizz’s little vegetable garden before heading back to his house. Sam was so easy to talk to. For the first time in his life, Grizz was starting to see that being gay was nothing to be ashamed of. This boy had giving him so much already, and seeing him cry made Grizz’s heart ache painfully in his chest.

Taking a step forward, Grizz closed the distance between them and gripped the fabric of Sam’s heavy, dark blue jacket.

He waited until the redhead was looking at him again before saying, “Hey, you know I’m not leaving you, right? I am coming back.”

Sam nodded his head once, before bringing his hand up to tap his fingers against the side of his forehead, signing _‘I know’_. “Just be careful,” he continued, using his voice for Grizz’s benefit. “I need you to be safe out there.”

Grizz nodded his head. “I will.”

Stepping up on his tiptoes to prevent Grizz from having to lean down, Sam grabbed a fist full of his black coat. Pulling him close, he brought his lips towards the taller boy’s and kissed him deeply before bringing him into a tight hug.

Stepping back, Sam reached a hand into one of the deep pockets of his jacket to pull out a book, Walden by Henry David Thoreau, and handed it to his boyfriend. “Something for you to read at night,” the boy offered as an explanation for his gift.

“Thanks.” Grizz smirked at the boy’s thoughtfulness.

Glancing over Sam’s shoulder, he caught sight of Bean, Gwen, and Mickey waiting in front of the huge crowd that had now formed. It had to be close to the whole town by this point.

With a sigh, Grizz gestured towards the teens behind Sam. “I should probably . . .”

Taking a step back, Sam waited for Grizz to stow the book into a pocket on his bag before hefting the luggage onto his back and walked with him towards his waiting adventurers. Before Sam could head over to stand next to Becca at the front of the crowd, Grizz caught him by the arm, forcing him to turn back for a moment to sign him a promise.

_‘I’ll see you soon’_.

* * *

Sam stood beside Becca as Allie gave a short speech to thank the four volunteers who were standing to her right. He knew that he should probably be focusing his attention on Allie to read her lips, but he couldn’t take his eyes off of Grizz. After turning away from him to join the other volunteers for the trip, Grizz had pulled his long hair back into a messy bun on top of his head.

If he had to admit it, Sam had had a crush on Grizz from the first moment he had laid eyes on him freshmen year. The boy was hanging out with his friends in the hallway in between classes with his dark red and yellow varsity jacket on. Their eyes had met for a split second as Sam was walking by, and he could still remember the feeling of butterflies flapping around in his stomach before hurrying on his way. At the time, he had quickly berated himself for the feelings that were coursing through him, making his cheeks grow warm. The last thing he had needed was to have a silly crush on one of the school’s jocks.

As the years had passed, Sam had kept his eyes on the cute football player until one day when he saw the taller boy sitting in the cafeteria with a girl. His heart had clinched in his chest at the sight of Grizz reaching for the blonde’s hand across the table. Of course he was straight. The idea that anybody could love him, a jock no less . . . It was ridiculous.

And then he had seen Grizz at Prom sporting a lime green, bottom up shirt and colorful bowtie and he had started to reconsider his original thoughts about the boy’s sexual orientation.

Thinking back to the events that had transpired the night before, Sam bit his bottom lip gently to try and prevent the huge smile from growing on his face. He could have sworn he could still feel Grizz’s hands on his hips, running up his chest towards his throat, and cradling his face . . . It was one of the best nights of his life.

Becca’s elbow brushed against Sam’s arm, bringing him out of his thoughts. The people around him were starting to clap and cheer, and he assumed Allie must have wrapped up whatever she had been saying.

By the time Sam turned back to look at Grizz, he was already walking away from them, leading the rest of the patrol into the forest. It wasn’t long before he lost sight of him among the trees and Sam let out a heavy sigh at the loss.

With the volunteers setting off on their journey, Sam could feel Becca grabbing his wrist and pulling him away from the huge gathering of students. Out of the corner of his eye he could see her signing something, but his mind was still trying to come to grips with the fact that Grizz was really gone. Someone had died out there a few months ago. Anything could happen to him. What if he didn’t make it back?

Deciding that he should probably be paying attention to what his friend was saying, Sam glanced over to catch the last two signs of her question.

_‘Sorry, what did you say?’_ the redhead asked, but Becca shrugged it off with a wave of her hand before apparently changing the subject.

“So, where were you the other night? I saved you a seat at Thanksgiving but you never showed,” Becca asked, gesturing with her hands.

_‘Yeah, I know. I sort of fell asleep. Sorry I didn’t text you back,’_ Sam signed.

Becca gave him a questioning look. “What do you mean? You seemed to be looking forward to the dinner and you just . . . slept through it?”

Sam felt his heart race at the thought of telling her what had happened the other night. That while everyone else was eating turkey and pie, and had lost his virginity.

With his hands shaking slightly, he slowly signed, _‘Well, not really. I mean, I was in bed . . . but I wasn’t alone . . . and I definitely wasn’t sleeping the whole time.’_ Becca narrowed her eyes at him and started to lift her hands to sign something, but Sam gestured for her to wait so he could finish. _‘Do you remember when I said that there had to be someone else gay here who was repressed and still in the closet?’ _

“You mean . . . you were with someone last night?” Becca asked, speaking each word slowly as she studied her friends face. “Of my God, Sam! Who?”

_‘G . . . R . . . I . . . Z . . . Z,’_ Sam finger-spelled.

“What? Grizz is–”

Sam put a hand up to quiet her, sensing that her voice was rising in volume and quickly glanced around to make sure that none of the still gathered people were paying attention to them.

_‘He isn’t ready for people to know yet,’_ Sam signed as an explanation for shutting her up. _‘I promised him that you wouldn’t say anything–’ _

Becca shook her head, her eyes bright with happiness for her friend. “No, of course not. I won’t say anything until he’s ready, but . . . Wow. Grizz?” she asked in shock as Sam nodded his head. “I did not see that coming.”


	3. Three

** Chapter 3 **

Sam tried to keep Grizz from his thoughts as he did his best to focus on Becca’s hands. A couple of days had passed since he watched his boyfriend lead the way into the forest that surrounded their town. His stomach felt queasy whenever his mind drifted off to him possibly being hurt or even dying out there. After all, it wouldn’t be the first time, but he couldn’t dwell on that now.

_‘I understand, Will, but this really isn’t the best time to be holding elections,’_ Becca signed, translating Allie’s words for him to make sure he could keep up with the conversation.

Sitting in his cousin’s kitchen, Sam, Becca, and Will sat in the available chairs on one side of the island as Allie, Luke, Clark, and Jason took up space around the rest of the counter.

_‘The food supply is starting to run low. Now is not a good time to get everyone riled up and picking sides. We need everyone focused on making it through the winter and preparing for what is to come next for us to continue to survive here,’ _Becca finished signing for Allie. _‘Maybe when spring comes around we can discuss elections again, but now is not the right time to worry about who is going to lead us.’_

* * *

“I can’t believe Allie is holding off on the elections,” Clark whined as he, Luke and Jason made their way towards the church downtown. The weather felt pretty nice for the first week of December, a slight chill in the air, and they decided to take advantage of it. “This could have been our chance to actually have a say in stuff.”

“What, you think Allie’s doing a bad job?” Luke asked, raising an eyebrow.

Clark shrugged. “No, but . . . It’s not like we made her little Miss Queen forever. It’s about time we gave someone else a chance to make the rules.” 

“I don’t know,” Luke admitted, before crossing the street. “Allie is doing a pretty good job at this. Even if we did hold elections, she would probably win anyways. Just let her worry about making the decisions. Plus, nobody gives a shit about what we think.”

“They should, though. I mean, we are the ones that do all the dirty work around here,” Clark pointed out. “We should at least get a say in how this place is run. This could have been our chance to be more than just the muscle. Don’t you want to know how that feels?”

“What? Being in charge?” Jason asked, jumping into the conversation.

“Exactly,” Clark nodded. The three friends made their way up the stairs of the gazebo that sat in the middle of the grassy courtyard outside of the church and took a seat on the bench. “She is fucking wrong, bro. We got ideas. We got substantive ideas.”

“We do?” Jason quipped, only half listening at this point.

“Big word for you, Clark,” Luke noted sarcastically, reaching to pull off one of the cans of beer from the six-pack that Jason had carried for them. “Substantive?”

A pop sounded as Clark pulled on the tab of his can and bubbles fizzled from within.

“I’m serious, guys,” Clark snapped after taking a sip from his beer. “If given the chance, we could really make some positive changes around here.”

Luke leaned forward with a sigh, elbows resting on his knees. “There are actually a few things I would do differently if given the chance,” he admitted. “And Allie didn’t say there wouldn’t be an election. We’ll just have to wait a few months.”

“So . . . What would you guys do differently?” Jason ventured, eyeing the two boys that were sitting next to him.

* * *

While the members of the Guard talked on about their future endeavors, a young man sat on the ground behind the gazebo leaning back against the wall. As he eavesdropped on the conversation, a smile creeped across his face.

For the past couple of months, Campbell had been keeping himself busy with Elle, and he was happy . . . At least he felt something close to happiness. Seeing the emotions on the faces of the people around him was one thing, but what the feeling actually was and how it felt was a mystery to him. Nevertheless, Elle made him feel closer to normal than anyone else had in his life up until that point. But lately, he had been feeling bored. Restless. He needed something besides Elle to focus his time and attention on.

For almost a year, he had sat on the sidelines and allowed first Cassandra, and then Allie, to lead the town in the way they saw fit. He followed their rules, worked the jobs he was assigned, and, for the most part, kept out of their way . . . but maybe this was his chance.

Honestly, he had never really considered being Mayor. He knew that most people didn’t like him. In fact, many were afraid of him, and running a town was not something he could accomplish on his own. Not without people around him to back him up and help him enforce his demands. And with the Guard constantly following Allie around and acting like her bodyguards, there was little to no chance of finding the right opportunity to take her down. From the way they stuck to her side, he had assumed that Allie had the Guard’s complete and utter support, but now . . . It sounded like there was an opening to possibly deceive them.

From the town meetings he had attended with the rest of the teenagers, he knew that the public was growing tired with Allie’s rules and from what he was overhearing, even the Guard was ready for a change.

Still, with everyone’s personal opinion set in place surrounding himself, he doubted he could get anywhere close to the majority of the students to follow him. What he needed was someone else to be the head of his leadership campaign. Someone that he could easily manipulate to accomplish his wishes, but allowed him to stay behind the scenes, pulling the strings.

And he knew exactly whom he had to talk to about that.

* * *

With the steady sounds of flaky, crumbly leaves under foot, and the soft snaps of branches with every couple of steps, Grizz slowly led Gwen, Bean, and Mickey through the dense forest.

All of the leaves had fallen off the trees weeks ago, and the gray bark felt rough and cold against Grizz’s fingertips. As a cold breeze ran past them, a shiver traveled up his spine and he tugged the zipper of his jacket up closer around his throat. The only sounds to reach their ears besides for their footsteps against the debris covered floor was the occasional drumming of woodpeckers hidden in the bare trees, sounding like rap music, and a squirrel or two as the creatures darted quickly across the ground before springing into the branches of the trees.

On their first day in the woods, the party had started by heading due west for two miles before turning north and slowly arcing towards the east, trekking in a circular path around the perimeter of the town. By the third day, they had still found nothing but trees.

“If we don’t find an open field, do you think we could clear enough trees to make our own?” Mickey asked, the condensation forming a plume of white steam in the cold air.

“In the middle of winter?” Bean huffed under the weight of her pack.

“What does it feel like to starve? It’s really slow, isn’t it?” Gwen had stopped in her steady march to stare up at the graying branches.

In the shadows of the receding sunlight, the sickly looking branches resembled the reaching arms of pale skeleton hands and a shiver ran up Grizz’s spine at the eerie thought.

“Or do you think we would turn on each other first?” Gwen continued, casting her fearful gaze around her traveling companions.

“What, like eat each other, you mean?” Mickey asked, and a horrified expression flickered across his face for a split second. “There’s not enough of us to eat. It may buy us some time but . . .” He shook his head to get rid of the thought.

“I don’t think we’d get that far,” Grizz sighed, staring at the bark of a tree that was planted between the two girls, not being able to bring himself to lock eyes with any of them. “If we come back without an answer . . . people aren’t just gonna wait around to starve. We’ll kill each other first for the food that’s there. We’ll never make it to January.”

Silence drifted over the small group, blank expressions staring back at their expedition leader.

“Kind of dark, Grizz,” Mickey noted sarcastically, breaking the silence.

“Umm, guys?” Bean softly spoke up, and Grizz frowned at the young woman’s puzzled look. “Do you see that?”

Following the girl’s pointed finger, Grizz paused as he took in the sight of the immense gray towers of steel and glass that were reaching towards the sky beyond the tree line. Not able to form words in his shocked state, he could sense his companies gathering closer to him to get a better look at what they were seeing.

“Is that . . . a city?” Gwen asked, obviously as baffled about the buildings’ sudden appearance as the rest of them.

It may have been his imagination or a side effect from the glare of the setting sun that Grizz was trying to see passed, but he could have sworn the image of the towers was warping and shifting slightly in his vision. He narrowed his eyes in the hope of trying to clear it up but it didn’t help much.

“How did we miss that?”


	4. Four

**Chapter 4**

The longer Grizz stared perplexed at the strange shapes in the distance the worse his headache got. The fact that the structures were found out in the middle of the woods was one thing, but to add on the weird twisting and morphing of the buildings and it just didn’t seem real.

“Maybe it’s a mirage?” Mickey asked to Grizz’s right. “You know, like an optical illusion or something.”

Grizz shook his head slowly. “I don’t think mirages are supposed to look like that.”

“Come on,” Bean prompted, taking a step forward. “We should probably check it out. We are heading in that direction anyways.”

With a look of uncertainty, the group followed after the young Muslim woman, quickly catching up to her.

They hadn’t gone far when Grizz felt something ram into his chest . . . Or had he run into something? He wasn’t sure. One moment, he was walking through the woods, the sounds of woodpeckers echoing in the trees around him and then . . . Some invisible force pushed against his body and for a sharp second he thought he was going to fall backwards but then his foot came down and he suddenly stumbled forward, pushing through whatever it was that had been blocking his path.

“What the hell was that?” Mickey cried out, spinning around to check the empty space behind them.

“Guys?”

Still confused on what had just happened to them, Grizz spun back to gape at Gwen. Open-mouthed, the woman simply pointed ahead of them in the direction they had been walking. Following the girl’s outstretched finger, Grizz turned to find the buildings they had been walking towards standing strong and steady, no longer warping and twisting in the sunlight.

“What–” Grizz sputtered, but was interrupted by Bean.

“Do you hear that?”

Between the shock of stumbling across skyscrapers in the middle of the forest and the weird interaction of seemingly running into an invisible wall, Grizz hadn’t registered the sound of voices talking and laughing in the distance until someone had mentioned it. He was certain he hadn’t heard anything but birds around them just moments ago.

Raising an eyebrow in bewilderment at Bean, she simply shrugged her shoulders before making her way in the direction where the voices were coming from. After a slight hesitation, the others followed.

With the soft crunching noises of the dead leaves littering the ground being the only sound of their approach, the four teenagers steadily drew closer to the tree line in front of them that opened up to what appeared to be a park with benches and an open green field that was surrounded by a paved walkway. A kid’s playground could be made out in the far corner of the grassy field.

The park seemed pretty deserted. Merely a handful of people could be seen wandering around the open space. Only two young women seemed to be hanging out on this side of the grounds. One, a dark brunette, was sitting down on a bench, preoccupied with her phone while her friend, while a redhead, got up to throw something away in the trashcan.

“Excuse me,” Grizz called out to the redhead as he stepped forward, breaking from the cover of the woods.

Raising her head to the voice, the woman stared back at him for a moment in surprise. “Where did you guys come from?” she asked skeptically as she took a few steps in their direction.

Deciding to ignore the question for the moment, Grizz asked, “Could you tell us where we are?”

“New York,” the redhead expressed. The black outline of a tattoo on her neck was peeking through the collar of her coat. Crossing her arms, a frown slowly seeped onto her features. “Well . . . Brooklyn anyways.”

“Let me guess,” Bean spoke, stepping up beside Grizz. “Your district has been cut off from the rest of the world? Trees seemed to have sprouted up, cutting off roads and streets from where other buildings have previously been? And Wi-Fi, data, and TVs are no longer working?”

The redhead stared at her for amount, gaping at her before finding her voice again. “Yeah, exactly. How–”

“We seem to be in a similar situation,” Grizz explained.

At this, the redhead turned to call her friend over to join them and quickly caught her up on the conversation.

“So, who are you guys?” the brunette asked, scanning the faces of the four travelers. “And where did you come from?”

“My name is Gareth, but everyone calls me Grizz,” he explained before turning and pointing out each of his friends in turn. “And that’s Mickey, Gwen, and Bean. We’re from a town in Connecticut called West Ham.”

“Connecticut?” the redhead gasped, raising an eyebrow. “How far did you walk to get here?”

“We were sent out on a patrol to see what else was out here. Our food supply is starting to run low, so we were hoping to find some cleared land to possibly farm,” Grizz admitted before gesturing behind him towards the trees. “We’ve been traveling in a circle around our town for a couple of days now, but honestly we’ll probably only about an hours walk from here.”

“Maybe this is better,” Gwen spoke up for the first time. “We could set up some kind of trading arrangement. Help each other out?”

“We could even pull our knowledge. Work together to find a way home,” Mickey added, excitement entering his voice at the idea before looking back at the girls in front of them. “Is there any chance we could speak to whoever is in charge here? Also, I don’t think we got your names yet.”

“I’m Isabelle,” the brunette offered up before nodding towards her friend. “And that’s Clary. My brother, Alec, he is one of our co-leaders. We could take you to speak to him if you want.”

* * *

With a bright smile on his face, Campbell entered through the archway into the kitchen of Harry’s extravagant house to find the boy leaning forward in his chair with a lost look on his face.

“Morning, Sunshine,” Campbell greeted, setting the coffee cup that he had picked up at a café on his way there down on the table in front of Harry.

“Seriously, Campbell,” Harry groaned. He kept his eyes downcast, but did wrap a hand around the offered drink. “What, so now we’re in some universe where you’re generous and thoughtful?”

Campbell raised an eyebrow at the lack of emotion in the teen’s voice. He had heard from Kelly that Harry hadn’t been doing so well. Apparently, with all the changes and new expectations that had been sprouting up in the rich kid's life since they ended up in this new world, the boy had been having problems adjusting but he hadn’t expected to see him this bad.

Pulling out the chair next to Harry, Campbell took a seat and studied the teen’s face. “You look like shit, man.”

Harry rolled his eyes at the jab. “I’d probably feel better if I had some more of those pills.”

Campbell smirked at the topic change and reached into his pocket, running his thumb over the plastic bag that was in there. He knew that getting the kid hooked on the drug at prom would work to his advantage at some point.

“I need something from you first.”

“Come on, man. You know I can pay for it.”

Campbell shook his head. “I’m not here for money. I want to talk to you about an opportunity that has recently been brought to my attention.”

For the first time, Harry turned his head to the side as he combed a hand through his dark messy hair and sent him a questioning expression.

“I overheard the Guard say that Allie is considering holding elections in a few months. I want you to take the position.”

“Uh, no,” Harry sighed, gruffly shaking his head. “No, I don’t think so.”

“You sure?” Campbell asked, leaning back in his seat. “This is our chance. I remember when you used to run this place. This school. Nobody could touch you. That guy is still in there.”

“Didn’t you hear me?” Campbell could tell that Harry was hoping the question would come out sounding harsher then it did, but in the man’s depressed state his voice sounded weaker than usual. “I’m not going to be pulled into your bullshit. If you want to be in charge so badly, why don’t you run?”

Campbell shrugged. “I’d never get elected. You know that.”

Shaking his head tiredly, Harry raised his coffee cup to his lips.

“Look around you, Harry. Can you honestly tell me you like the way things are? Because I don’t. You like being told to pick up garbage, or being crammed into a house with a bunch of inconsiderate teenagers? You want this to be your life?”

“No,” Harry reluctantly admitted.

Sensing his ideal partner’s resistance weakening, Campbell pulled out the small plastic bag from his jacket pocket. The soft crinkling of the container drew Harry’s attention away from the granite tabletop.

Seeing the small white pills in the dealer’s hands, a longing look reached the addicts eyes. “Just give me some, man,” Harry whimpered. “Come on.”

“I’m tired of grunt work,” Campbell continued as if the teen hadn’t spoken and played with the bag in his hands. “I’m tired of groveling to people. I assumed you felt the same way.”

“I don’t feel anything,” Harry moaned, the words spoken barely above a whisper. “I’ll help you, okay. I’ll pull myself together in time for the election in a couple of months. Just give me one. Please.”

“There’s not going to be an election.”

Harry squinted his eyes as he lifted his gaze from the bag to meet Campbell’s eyes. “What are you talking about? You said–”

“I’m serious. You need to snap out of this now. I don’t want to wait. Changes need to start happening now and I can’t do it by myself.” Campbell looked up to lock eyes with the depressed man in front of him. “We’re not going to ask for power. We’re going take it. Well . . . you are.”

Harry’s eyes grew big as what Campbell was saying sank in. “What? You mean, like, by force?” Instead of answering, Campbell just held Harry’s gaze steadily before the teen shook his head viciously, a begging look in his eyes. “No, no way. I’m not helping you with that.”

“You want more pills?”

At his tainting words, Harry stilled his head as he stared at the bag Campbell was now holding up in front of him.

“We’re a team,” he emphasized, leaning forward against the table. “You signed on months ago, the day you took the first one of these. Trust me, I’ll make you come out smelling like roses.”

For several long seconds, Harry stared back down at the table’s surface, seeming to ponder everything that Campbell had said and the deal he was offering up to him. The smirk on Campbell’s face grew as the depressed teen slowly shook his head, knowing exactly what his answer was going to be before he even uttered a word.

“Okay,” Harry relented. Lifting his head, he glanced pleadingly into Campbell’s eyes. “Okay, fine. Just give me the fucking pill.”


	5. Five

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am so sorry about the delay in uploading!! I've been dealing with horrible writers block for this story, but hopeful I can start getting back on track now. Thanks for your patience.

**Chapter 5**

Campbell was busy twisting some clearly overcooked spaghetti noodles onto his plastic fork when he sensed someone joining him at his empty table in the school’s cafeteria.

“Nice to see you finally up and around,” he commented, spying Harry out of the corner of his eye.

“Well, you weren’t giving me much of a choice,” Harry sighed and started to unscrew the cap off his bottle of water. “What’s going on with your brother?” he added, nodding in the direction of the deaf, redheaded boy who was sitting across from Becca a couple of tables over.

Campbell glanced over in Sam’s direction before turning back to his tray. “What do you mean?”

“I don’t know,” Harry said, his uncombed hair falling into his eyes. “He looks tired and . . . has he been crying?”

Campbell shrugged, taking a drink from his own bottle. “I’ve barely spoken to him in weeks.”

Harry sent him a scowl. “He’s your brother. How have you–?”

“Look, right now my little fag of a brother is the last thing I’m worried about. We need to start planning how we are going to take down Allie.”

“So, what’s the plan?” Harry asked. He brought a fork full of noodles to his mouth before making a face at the mushy texture on his tongue. “God, and when we do take over, we have got to get better cooks in the kitchen.”

Ignoring his friend’s last comment, Campbell scanned the other teenagers that were sitting at the other tables in the cafeteria until finally coming to rest on the members of their Guard . . . Well, three of them anyway.

Luke, Clark, Jason, and Grizz had become so close during their high school years and even after everything had happened they still seemed to rarely leave each other’s sides. Campbell had hardly given the group of football players any mind during the school years, but even to him, it was weird seeing them without Grizz present.

Campbell gestured towards the boys’ table. “Our first step should be to talk to them.”

“The Guard?” Harry asked, following his line of sight. “Why?”

“They follow Allie everywhere,” Campbell reminded him. “They’re like her bodyguards. If we are going to take Allie down, we need to start by getting some eyes on the inside.”

“But would they even join us? They seem pretty loyal to her.”

“They seem that way, don’t they? I overheard them talking the other day. They’re about ready for a change as well,” Campbell mused, studying the football players as they laughed at some joke one of them had shared. “I don’t think it would take much to convince Clark to help us. He’s pretty dumb as it is. Jason shouldn’t be a problem either. If any of them will give us trouble, it’s Luke.”

“Okay . . .” Harry resigned with a small nod. “When do you want to approach them with this?”

“It will have to be soon. Before Grizz gets back. That guy is definitely the brains’ of their little group. We’ll never get them to come around if he’s present.”

“You know, after lunch, I heard they usually spend a few hours hanging out on the football field behind the school or in that small park downtown before returning to Allie’s house,” Harry advised. “We could find them then.”

* * *

The summer before Grizz had started high school, his father had taken him on a trip to New York for a week as a belated birthday present. After living in Connecticut for his whole life, the towering gray buildings, constant traffic, and the flocks of walking people was a bit of a cultural shock. As a surprise, his dad had even gotten them tickets to see one of the plays on Broadway; ‘Jersey Boys’.

For as long as Grizz could remember, his mother had always tried to steer him away from things she believed that boys shouldn’t be interested in, preferring for him to busy himself with things like football instead of the dance classes he loved as a child. Unlike his mother, his father always seemed to be more excepting of his rather . . . _feminine_ interests and the memories he still held from that trip he wouldn’t ever forget.

Which was why, as he and his friends followed the two city girls down the sidewalk, Grizz couldn’t help the eerie feeling that seeped through his body at the drastic change in the environment that he remembered from his visit to the big city.

The streets were still crowded with vehicles, only now instead of them moving at the slow crawl he remembered, traffic didn’t seem to be moving at all anymore. It wasn’t until he started peeking inside the windows of a few of the cars that he realized there was no one inside them. It took him a moment to understand that a lot of these cars must have belonged to the people who had suddenly vanished from this district of New York. Any drivers who had been left behind must have simply abandoned their vehicles. They wouldn’t be able to go anywhere with the traffic now at a standstill. Was the subway even still running?

“How much farther?” Mickey spoke up from behind him bringing Grizz out of his head.

Glancing behind him, he noticed the boy rolling his shoulders under the weight of his pack. Grizz could feel his own body beginning to suffer from the heaviness of his own bag and hoped they would be able to rest soon. Gwen and Bean seemed to be dragging their feet more too.

“We’re almost there,” Isabelle promised before pointing off into the distance in the direction of an earthy brown, rectangular-shaped apartment complex that rested only a couple more blocks away.

Allowing his friends chatter to drift off into the background, Grizz continued to scan the lonely streets of New York. As they walked, they did pass a few small groups of people walking on either side of the street, but it was nothing compared to what he remembered from his last trip out here. And the absence of car horns and the other street noise was so strange for the urban landscape. So much for the city that never sleeps . . . By the time they reached their destination, Grizz was relieved to be able to turn his back temporally from the unnerving quiet of the ghost city.

Gwen and Bean sighed with relief of their own as the heavy door swung shut behind them leaving the cold air outside and started to head in the direction of the elevators that were clearly stationed to one side of the lobby.

“We’ll have to take the stairs,” Isabelle informed them with an apologetic expression on her face. “The elevators stopped working soon after everything else happened.”

“But everything else works?” Mickey asked, unwrapping his scarf from around his neck.

“Besides for the TVs and the Internet, yeah, everything else seems to be working fine,” Clary explained, stepping ahead of her friend in the direction of the staircase. “As far as I know, none of the elevators in Brooklyn are running anymore.”

“We’re only going to the fifth floor. Come on,” Isabelle insisted before following behind the redhead.

After already trucking through the woods all day and then down the long stretches of New York’s sidewalks, Grizz’s legs were starting to feel tired; not to mention the ache in his shoulders. The last thing his body wanted to do was climb up a number of stairs. With a reluctant sigh, Grizz gritted his teeth and began the long climb up the flights. From the soft groans coming from his companies, he wasn’t the only one that was starting to struggle a bit by this point.

His legs felt like jelly by the time they reached the right landing and the group slowly made their way down the long hallway. Coming to a stop in front of one set of black painted double doors, Isabelle pushed open the entrance without knocking and held the door open for the five of them to stroll into the foyer.

“You can set your bags and jackets down over there for now,” the brunette said, pointing to a small alcove that was to the right of the door as they entered. “Wait here,” she continued as she closed the door behind them. “Let me check and see if my brother is home.” With that, her and Clary headed towards what appeared to be the living room of the apartment and disappeared around the corner.

Left alone, Mickey and Bean began to explore a little ways into the apartment.

“Nice place,” Mickey noted as he walked a few steps down the hallway that was just to the right of the entrance.

“Guys, I don’t think you should be snooping,” Grizz advised, folding his arms across his chest. “We’re supposed to be trying to make a good impression on these people.”

“We are in a stranger’s apartment,” Bean reminded them. She was busy scanning the shelves that lined the hallway between the front door and the living room. “Don’t you think we should at least try to learn something about this guy we are about to meet. For all we know, he could be a serial killer or a child molester or something.”

Grizz tilted his head as he eyed the back of Bean’s head. “You really think the leader of Brooklyn is a child molester?”

He watched as the Muslim girl’s shoulders lifted in a shrug without turning to face him. “You can never be too careful. Oh . . . Wow . . .”

Grizz raised an eyebrow at the sudden change in the girl’s tone. “What?”

“Nothing . . . Just some of this guy’s reading material.” Bean’s index finger skimmed across the spines of the books that were sitting on the shelves as she read off some of the titles. “‘_The Secret Art of Pentagrams_’, ‘_The History of the Necromancy Map_’, ‘_Theories on Apotropaic Magic_’ . . . There’s even, like, ten volumes of an Encyclopedia series on Lesser Demons. Are these people in some kind of a cult or something?”

Before Grizz could come up with a response, Isabelle returned from around the corner, encouraging both Mickey and Bean to return to Gwen and Grizz’s sides, feigning innocence.

Isabelle had removed her heavy jacket to reveal the dark blue shirt she was wearing underneath. The sleeves came to a stop halfway down the woman’s forearms and the deep V of the shirt didn’t leave much to the imagination. Grizz couldn’t help but notice similar tattoos covering her exposed skin as the one he had caught peeking out from Clary’s coat before.

“Okay,” the woman let out in a soft sigh before continuing. “Alec had to step out for a few minutes to go and handle something at the Institute, but Magnus is here.”

“Magnus?”

At the sound of his voice, the brunette’s eyes turned to lock on Grizz. “Magnus is our other co-leader. He’s free now if you want to see him.”

Despite Bean’s skeptical glare Grizz’s way, the group nodded in agreement before following Isabelle farther into the apartment.

Entering the living room, Grizz took in the sight of red brick walls with a pale yellow carpet. A velvet light blue chair and a bright red sofa were set up on the left side of the space while a long black leather couch rested on the other side, all facing the round coffee table that was in the middle of the room. If it weren’t for the weird reading material that Bean had found, Grizz wouldn’t have expected anything off about the occupants of the apartment.

Turning the corner, the group had to step around a black metal, spiral staircase that led up to a second floor before walking into what appeared to be some kind of home office, yet it was nothing like the workspace his father had set up at their home. For starters, the room was very cluttered. A long, rectangle table had been placed in the center of the space that was covered with different shaped bottles and bowls of different sizes, each containing some abstract colored liquid or powder. On the far end of the room, right up against the end of the table, was a shelving unit displaying more jars. There were several more bookcases placed up against the walls holding anything from books to even more various shaped bottles and jars. The word _apothecary_ came to Grizz’s mind.

Hiding in the back among all of this clutter was a young Asian man sitting behind a desk that lay diagonal against the far corner of the room. He was wearing a black and gray plaid shirt with the sleeves rolled up to just below his elbows and a black button-up vest over top. Grizz couldn’t help but notice the man’s nails were also painted black, and his hair was even styled up in a mohawk. In the past, Grizz had usually associated mohawks with hardcore punk bands, but he had to admit this guy seemed to pull off the look pretty well. He wished he could feel that confident in his own skin to experiment with his look a little.

The soft click of the door closing behind them caused Grizz to turn to find Isabelle had left them alone for their meeting.

“So,” the man who Grizz assumed was Magnus said with a smirk on his face. “You kids think I’m in a cult?”

Bean froze at the words that were clearly directed at her. “No.” The man raised an eyebrow in question at the fast reply and the girl’s shoulders slumped in defeat. “How did you–?”

“You kids aren’t as quiet as you think you are.” He leaned forward over his desk. “And personally, I think I would prefer that accusation over serial killer or child molester.”

Something about the look in the man’s eyes made Grizz think there was more to it than him just overhearing their conversation. Maybe he had cameras set up around the apartment.

“Izzy said you guys were from a town in Connecticut?” Magnus asked, and Grizz could sense Bean relax a little at the subject change.

“That’s right,” Grizz said, taking a step forward before quickly introducing himself, along with the other members in his group. “We were hoping maybe you could help us–”

That was as far as he got before hearing the door being pushed open again behind them and the group turned as one to find another man stepping into the room.

“Hey, my sister said we had some visitors,” the man said as his explanation for the interruption. Closing the door behind him, the new addition to their meeting eyed them.

This man was tall with black hair and had a tattoo on his neck. To Grizz, it looked sort of like a ‘Z’ with a squiggle through the middle. After seeing Isabelle it wouldn’t have surprise him if this man had several other tattoos of his own under his long sleeved shirt.

“Yes, this is Grizz, Bean, Gwen, and Mickey,” Magnus repeated the names they had just given him. “Guys, this is my husband, Alec.”

Grizz felt his stomach flip at the word. “Husband?” he gasped, and turned to look over the man with the tattoo again.

Alec stared back at him and squinted his eyebrows. “Yes?” The word came out sounding like a question.

Isabelle and Clary must of filled Magnus in on their situation in West Ham since he started to explain to Alec how they ended up here in their city. As the man talked, Grizz couldn’t help the warm sense of acceptance that rushed through him.

Growing up with his mom’s critical eye on his feminine hobbies, Grizz never felt like he could truly be himself. Because of his mother, he was raised to believe that being gay was wrong and he always felt like he had to hide that part of himself. Even after seeing Sam for the first time in high school and learning that he was gay as well, he still couldn’t help the dread that filled him every time he considered what it would be like to give in to those desires and start up a relationship with a boy.

In the small town of West Ham, different sexualities weren’t really discussed. It wasn’t something that people were very open about, and Grizz was pretty sure he and Sam were the only gay boys in their town. Being raised in such a closed-off section of Connecticut, it was such a relief and highly encouraging to him to came face-to-face with the gay married couple. Getting married and having kids . . . That future really was still a possibility for him, even being gay.

“We were thinking maybe we could set up some kind of a trading system with each other,” Grizz heard Mickey say, bringing him back to the present. “Since we’re all stuck here, you know, help each other out.”

Alec nodded slowly at Mickey’s words before turning to look at his husband. “It doesn’t sound like a bad idea. We are close to running out of some essential items ourselves.”

“Agree.” Magnus leaned back in his seat, playing with his pen in his hands. “Why don’t you head back with them tomorrow and start working something out with their leader?”

“You don’t want to come?” Alec asked, a slight hint of surprise in his voice.

Magnus swiveled slightly back-and-forth in his chair. “I have a meeting with Luke, Raphael, and Meliorn tomorrow that I can’t miss.” He gave a small shrug before continuing. “Besides, one us should probably stay behind in case we are needed for something here.”

Alec nodded again. “Alright, and I’ll talk to Jace. See if he wants to come along.” He then turned back to the group of teenagers. “You guys are welcome to stay here tonight. The girls can share the guest room. Boys, you’ll have to make do with the couches. I hope that’s okay.”

Mickey shook his head. “Trust me, we’ve gotten used to roughing it on couches lately.”

“Isabelle and Clary are out in the living room. They can show you to the guest room,” Magnus explained, gesturing towards the closed door.

Taking this as their cue to leave, Grizz, Mickey, Bean, and Gwen made their way out into the living room.

As Gwen closed the door to the office behind her, Alec was surprised to hear Magnus let out a small chuckle.

“What?” he asked, sending an amused smirk towards the warlock.

“I guess we were wrong.” At the confused look that crossed the Shadowhunter’s face, Magnus elaborated. “Apparently there are mundanes in this universe.”

At this, Alec let out a huff in amusement. “Yeah, just not in Brooklyn.”


	6. Six

**Chapter 6 **

Gwen and Bean retired to the guest room soon after Clary and Isabelle had left the apartment for the night. Exhausted from the day’s proceedings, it wasn’t long before Mickey had passed out on the red couch that sat across from Grizz, snoring softly.

Grizz knew he should be getting to sleep himself. Tomorrow was going to turn into another long day of hiking back through the woods after all, but he wasn’t tired. Instead, his mind kept replaying the events of the day. Needing a distraction, he reached over towards the lamp that was sitting on the end table behind his head and pulled on the string to turn it on. He then stretched his arm out to pull his dark green pack closer to him before unzipping the pocket that he had stowed the book that Sam had given him and flipped to the page he had dog-eared last night.

He was still engrossed in his book when he heard the door to Magnus’ office open and Grizz raised his head briefly to see Alec slipping out of the room.

“You’re still up?”

Grizz shrugged. “Can’t sleep.”

As Alec took a few steps closer to him, Grizz noticed him glance over at Mickey lying on the other couch, verifying the other boy was asleep before turning back to him.

“What are you reading?” he asked, nodding towards the book in Grizz’s hands.

“Walden by Henry David Thoreau,” he explained, showing him the cover. Not giving himself the chance to rethink what he was about to do, Grizz continued, “My boyfriend gave it to me before we left.”

“Boyfriend?” Alec gave off a small smile and raised an eyebrow in surprise. “You’re–”

“Yes,” Grizz voiced before Alec could say the word out loud. He then nodded in the direction of Mickey as an explanation. “They don’t know.”

“No one knows you have a boyfriend?”

“We just made things official the day before we left. I talked to Sam about it . . . He’s okay with keeping it to ourselves. For now, anyways. I’m sure he’s going to want to go public at some point.”

“Sam is out?”

Grizz nodded shyly in confirmation before turning back to his book.

“Then, why aren’t you? I mean, you took the step to get a boyfriend. Why don’t you want to tell people about it?”

“I grew up with a mom that didn’t want to accept me for being different. I guess I’m just worried that my friends are going to turn on me and start treating me the same way she did. For Sam . . . It was easier for him to come out.”

“You told me,” Alec pointed out. “That seemed pretty easy for you to do.”

“You’re gay too.” Grizz motioned towards the closed office door before adding, “You’re married to a man. It would be hypocritical of you to judge me for being the same.”

Alec took a seat next to Grizz on the couch. Keeping his voice low to prevent Mickey from waking up, he said, “You know, I was terrified too right before I came out.”

Grizz studied him out of the corner of his eye. “How did you get past the fear?”

Alec let out a heavy sigh. “My parents wanted to set me up with an arranged marriage. It just got to the point where I had to either suck it up and marry a woman or finally come out to everyone.”

Grizz frowned at this. “Was Magnus an arranged marriage?”

Alec chuckle softly. “Thankfully, no. After I came out, my parents both backed off and let me date who I wanted. Although, it did take some time for them to come around to excepting Magnus.”

They sat there in silence for a while after that, both lost in their own thoughts until Alec pushed himself to his feet.

“I’m going to head to bed. Don’t stay up too late. Okay? I would like to get an early start heading towards your town if we can.”

Grizz nodded in understanding before glancing at the closed office door. “Is Magnus not joining you?”

A small smile played on Alec’s lips as he followed Grizz’s gaze. “He’s gotten into the habit of falling asleep at his desk. He’s been working hard lately trying to find a way to get us all back home. That’s part of what he is going to be discussing at his meeting tomorrow.” Turning back to Grizz, he added, “If he hasn’t come to bed in the next hour or so I’ll come back to check on him.”

* * *

Grizz woke to the smell of food cooking and loud, cheerful voices talking over each other coming from the kitchen. With a tired groan, Grizz slowly opened his eyes to find sunlight streaming through the glass doors that led out onto the apartment’s balcony.

“Grizz, get up!” someone chirped happily as they strolled out of the guest room and started to make their way across the living room in the direction of the other voices. “Breakfast is almost ready.”

Shifting, Grizz propped himself up on one arm to get a better angle on who was speaking to him to find Bean disappearing around the wall on the other side of the living room.

With a sigh, he rolled off the couch and forced himself to his feet. Retrieving some clean clothes from his bag along with his toiletries, he made his way to the bathroom to get ready for the day.

By the time Grizz headed back out to the living room, Bean and Gwen were busy setting the table.

“Grizz!” Gwen greeted with a smile. “Hope you’re hungry. Magnus went a little overboard on the amount of food he prepared.”

“Do they need any help?”

“Ask Alec. He’s in the kitchen.” Bean gestured behind her and Grizz walked off to find him.

The kitchen, Grizz discovered, was just as cluttered as the home office. An array of pots and pans hung down from a rack that was hanging from the ceiling. Open shelving along one wall stored an assortment of different cooking ingredients. The stovetop was located on the opposite side of the island where Magnus was currently stationed taking turns checking on the different foods that were busy sizzling in the pans that were in front of him. Even more pots and pans cluttered the open space of the island. Rather they were dirty instruments that he hadn’t gotten around to cleaning yet or just more items that he didn’t have the space for anywhere else, Grizz couldn’t tell. Two different storage boxes were also sitting on the island; one with an array of cooking knives and the other was a clear container that held diverse wooden spoons and spatulas.

Mickey was over by the shelves searching for ingredients that Magnus must have asked him to fetch, while Alec stood off to one side watching his husband work.

“Morning, Grizz,” Alec greeted, noticing him enter.

“Hey.” Grizz nodded back. “Smells great,” he added to the Asian man.

“Thanks. We’re almost ready to eat.”

“Anything I can do to help?”

“You can grab a couple of those serving plates and two of the bowls,” Alec said, gesturing behind Grizz.

Turning around, Grizz saw yet more shelves, this one storing verse sized plates and bowls.

“Jace is going to be here soon,” Alec added as Grizz got to work sorting through the dishes. “He’s going to be eating with us.”

“Who is Jace again?” Mickey asked, turning back towards the island.

“My brother,” Alec explained. “I called him last night. He’s going to accompany me with you guys back to your town.”

As if on cue, there was a knock at the front door.

“That’s probably him,” Magnus reasoned.

As Alec headed out of the kitchen to answer the door, Magnus switched off the heat under the pans before gesturing to Grizz to bring over the serving dishes. Minutes later, Grizz and Mickey carried out plates piled with pancakes, bacon, and sausages with Magnus close behind with two bowls of scrambled eggs and mixed berries. Alec, Gwen, and Bean had already taken their seats with their new visitor; a blonde man with tattoos covering his exposed skin.

* * *

By the time the gang was finished eating, stomachs stuffed from the morning feast, Jace was all caught up on what was happening.

Making sure their bags were completely packed, they headed out the front door, down the stairs, and back out into the quiet streets of New York. This early in the morning, the roads were even quieter than yesterday and a shiver ran up Grizz’s spine at the strangeness of the whole thing.

From the back of the party, Grizz could make out snippets of the conversation Mickey and Gwen were having with Jace as they led the way back to the park where they had exited the woods. It was nice to see how well they were already getting along.

Alec and Magnus were right in front of him, holding hands, which Grizz couldn’t help but smile at seeing. It warmed his heart when Magnus had insisted on accompanying them to the park so he could see his husband off. It was bluntly obvious how in love the two of them were and he truly hoped that he could find someone that he could grow to cherish that much.

“What are you smiling about?”

Grizz spun his gaze to stare at Bean who was walking beside him. “What? . . . Nothing.”

Bean furrowed her eyebrows at him before leaning towards him. Lowering her voice, she said, “They sure seem happy together, don’t they?”

Grizz could just nod somberly before focusing back on their path and spied the entrance to the park up ahead.

Finding the familiar shrubs that boarded the outskirts of the trees where they had exited, Grizz made his way up to the front of their group allowing Alec and Magnus to have a few minutes alone.

“How many people are you missing from your town?” Jace asked as the minors gathered near him.

“There are just teenagers left back in New Ham,” Mickey explained. “Our parents . . . All of our siblings . . . They are all gone.”

“It’s just the Junior and Senior classes from our high school that are left,” Gwen added.

“So, who is in charge now?”

“Her name is Allie,” Grizz spoke up. “She took over after her sister died a few months ago.”

The blonde nodded in understanding and glanced back at his brother to find Alec pulling out of the hug that he had been giving Magnus and leaned in to give him one last kiss goodbye before walking over to join them.

With a final wave from their group, Grizz led the way into the woods, the soft crunching of dead leaves underfoot his sign that the others were following him.

He was fully expecting to run into the weird barrier that they had come across on their way in yesterday, and was surprised when they passed by the location without incident. Shrugging it off quickly, Grizz continued forward in the direction of home, ready to see Sam again.


	7. Seven

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry about the delay in posting. My beta wouldn't get back to me . . .

**Chapter 7**

“Home, sweet home,” Gwen cheered as they reappeared out of the trees close to where they had originally entered at the start of their journey.

“Or as close as we are going to get right now,” Mickey muttered under his breath.

“We need to find Allie,” Bean acknowledged, bringing the team back on track. “By this time, she’s probably at the church.”

“Is anybody else hungry?” Mickey complained.

“We just ate a couple hours ago,” Gwen reminded him.

“Which means it’s about lunch time.”

Gwen rolled her eyes, exasperated already from the conversation. “The school is in the opposite direction of the church.”

Grizz sighed, getting irritated as well. “Look, why don’t you guys head to the cafeteria and get something to eat. Okay?” He then gestured to Jace and Alec behind them who were both waiting with amused expressions on their faces. “I’ll take these two over to the church and look for Allie.”

“Let me take your bag then,” Bean said, reaching towards Grizz. “I’ll drop it off in the gym. We can sort through it later.”

Slipping the straps off his shoulders, he handed Bean his pack and watched the three teenagers head in the direction of the high school.

“Come on,” Grizz said, waving for Jace and Alec to follow him across the small field and towards a few of their business buildings that still sat about a football length away from them.

“So, this is West Ham,” Alec stated as they made it to the sidewalk and continued down the street. “Where is everyone?”

New York may have been a lot quieter than usual, but they still had quite a few people left in the city. Compared to Brooklyn, West Ham was practically deserted.

“Most people are probably working the shifts that they have been assigned from Allie and her committee,” Grizz explained as they walked. “There really isn’t a lot of us here now. Everyone has had to start pulling their own weight.”

The few people they did come across gave Jace and Alec perplexed looks as they walked by.

“Everyone sure seems real friendly around here,” Jace noted, a hint of sarcasm in his voice.

“Ignore them,” Grizz advised. “It’s been months since any of them have seen someone besides their classmates, let alone an adult. Besides, if you think _they_ are friendly, just wait until you meet Campbell. He was diagnosed as a psychopath."

Shock passed across Alec's face at this news. "You have a teenage psychopath living amongst you?"

Grizz nodded once. "Afraid so," he mumbled under his breath.

They walked in silence for a while, before Alec spoke again. "What is everyone doing?"

"We got a handful of people working in the cafeteria, preparing the majority of the food we all eat here everyday," Grizz explained. “A few of the cafés are open at least a couple hours a day, and we have people stationed at the grocery store and the smaller ones around town just to help keep an eye on how much stuff people are taking off the shelves. We even got people assigned jobs at the library.”

“The library?” Grizz didn’t need to turn around to know Jace was scowling behind him. “Why bother keeping that open?”

Grizz glared back at him over his shoulder. “The TVs don’t work anymore,” he reminded him. “We need some way to keep ourselves entertained outside of work. Not to mention to research any information we may need since the wifi isn’t working either.”

“Grizz!”

Spinning around at the sound of his name, Grizz smiled warmly at the sight of Becca running over.

“You’re back,” she cried, coming to a stop next to them before raising an eyebrow at the two men that had been following him down the street. “Making some new friends?”

Grizz chuckled. “Something like that.”

“What happened out there?” she asked, folding her arms across her chest.

He shrugged. “We’re not alone here, Becca.” Grizz quickly filled her on what his team had found in the woods. “This is Jace and Alec.” He gestured to his companions. “Alec is one of the co-leaders in Brooklyn. They’re here to talk to Allie about possibly setting up a trading system between our two districts.”

As Grizz finished up his story, he noticed Becca sending uncomfortable looks between him and the two men as she fidgeted and gently bit her lip. He quickly got the impression that she wanted to talk to him about something but was hesitant to bring it up in their current company.

“Sam told you. Didn’t he?” Grizz asked, guessing where the young woman’s thoughts were going.

Becca raised an eyebrow in surprise at how nonchalantly he had brought up the boy’s name and glanced back at the strangers one last time, hesitantly.

“Alec is gay too, Becca. It’s fine.”

“Wait . . . Too?” Jace stammered, looking between the two boys in front of him in turn. “Grizz is–”

Grizz gave Alec a confused look. “Alec didn’t tell you?”

The brothers had appeared to be pretty close with each other, and he hadn’t specifically instructed Alec not to tell anyone after the conversation they had the other night. Honestly, Grizz wasn’t surprised how little the idea of Magnus or Jace knowing about his sexuality bothered him. After all, he already knew they accepted Alec.

“You said you were still in the closet.” Alec shrugged. “It’s not my secret to tell.”

“Sam has been worried sick about you, Grizz,” Becca admitted, falling into step beside him as they continued towards the church which they could now see in the distance. “He hasn’t slept much in the past week, and he was crying yesterday.”

“He was crying?” His stomach twisted uncomfortably at the thought of his boyfriend crying all alone, not knowing if he was alive or dead.

“One of us died out in those woods a couple months ago, Grizz. Of course Sam has been worried about you.” Becca let out a heavy sigh. “I wish you had been more mindful on your timing.”

“What do you mean?”

Becca sent him a disapproving look out of the corner of her eye. “You had to confront him about your feelings just a few days before you left on your trip?” she chided him. “Look, Sam is my best friend, and I’m glad he’s found you. Ever since he came out as gay, he has been scared that he wasn’t going to find anyone that would accept him, but . . . You knew you were going to be leaving. You had to know how hard that was going to be on him right after hooking-up with you.”

Grizz cringed at the word. “Can you not refer to it as a ‘hook-up’? That makes it sound like a one-time thing, and that’s not my intention at all.”

“Glad to hear it.” She smirked at him. “I just wish you had waited until _after_ you had returned to talk to him about starting something up.”

“Is he okay?”

“He hasn’t been sleeping or eating much,” she admitted, shaking her head. “I’m sure he’ll snap right out of his funk though when he hears that you’re back.”

“Where is he?” Grizz asked. By now, the group had reached the green plaza in front of the church. From here, he could make out the image of Luke, Clark, and Jason sitting on the steps in front of the red-bricked building, guarding the entrance while their Mayor was inside.

“He’s still on his shift at the library. Do you want me to let him know you’re here?”

Grizz smiled at the thought of seeing his boyfriend again. “Yeah, but this meeting with Allie will probably take an hour or so.”

Becca gave a quick nod. “His shift should be over by then, anyways. I’ll tell him to wait for you outside of the church.”

With a wave in goodbye, she turned back to the sidewalk and continued on her way downtown.

Luke and Jason were sitting on either side of Clark, looking over his shoulder at something on his phone as Grizz approached them with Jace and Alec close behind him. Grizz couldn’t help but take note of the goofy grins that were plastered onto both Jason and Clark’s faces.

“Grizz!” Luke greeted happily. Getting to his feet, he gave Grizz a hug, patting his back. “Good to see you’re back.”

“He lives,” Jason exclaimed, drawing out the last word in the similar fashion as Mushu did in the Disney movie, Mulan. This was quickly followed by him and Clark bursting out in a fit of laughter at Jason’s idiotic attempt at a joke.

Grizz shook his head at his friends, but he couldn’t hide the smirk that slipped onto his face. “Dorks.”

“Ignore them,” Luke advised with his own shake of the head. Then he caught sight of the two men standing behind him and his eyes went wide in surprise. “Who–”

“This is Jace and Alec,” Grizz said, interrupting his friend before turning to glance over his shoulder at his new companions. “These are my friends. Luke, Jason, and Clark. We call ourselves the Guard. We’re basically the town's makeshift police force,” he explained.

“Curiosity abounds! Please, where do you come from; how did you get here; what is your favorite color; and do you wish to be my friend?”

Grizz stared at Clark in utter confusion. He could have sworn that was another quote from a TV show, Teen Titans maybe.

“Are we supposed to answer that?” Grizz heard Jace speak up behind him.

Ignoring the blonde man, Grizz turned to Luke who was still glaring stupidly at Jason and Clark, who had both returned to laughing like idiots in front of them. “Are they feeling okay?”

“They may be a little high,” Luke admitted slowly, refusing to look at him.

“Did you give them something?” Grizz demanded, glaring at the back of his friend’s head.

Luke spun around at the accusation and waved his hands in denial. “If they got it from anyone, it was from Campbell.”

“How does Campbell still have drugs to sell?”

“Raided the pharmacy?” Luke guessed before turning his gaze away again. “Hell, maybe he’s growing it now. Honestly, it wouldn’t surprise me if he was.”

After one last concerned look at the two teenage boys sprawled out on the steps, Grizz let the matter drop for now. “Problem for another day. I need to update Allie on what we found in the woods.”

Luke nodded. “Right. Come on.” He turned to head up the church stairs before calling over his shoulder to their friends. “You idiots don’t do anything stupid while I’m gone.”

Luke pushed open the church door, making his way inside and started up the wooden staircase that was to the right of the entrance. To Grizz’s surprise, Luke suddenly paused at the landing and trapped him against the wall.

“We have a problem,” Luke informed him, an intense look on his face.

Grizz stared back at him, still shocked from seeing his friends high in the middle of the day. “What happened?”

“Harry and Campbell. They followed us to the park after lunch yesterday,” Luke explained, gesturing back down the stairs. At this, Grizz assumed he meant Clark and Jason who were waiting outside and not Jace and Alec who were waiting, extremely patiently, a few stairs below them. “Apparently, Campbell is tired of the way Allie has been running things, and he wants Harry to take over as Mayor.”

“Well, Allie was thinking about holding elections,” Grizz reminded him. “If Harry wants to run–”

“Allie has decided to hold off on elections,” Luke explained. “She wants to wait until we have this food shortage under control.”

“Okay . . .” Grizz groaned, not sure where his friend was going with this.

“Campbell wants to help Harry take charge by force,” Luke stated straight out and Grizz’s eyebrows rose as this information began to sink in. “Campbell knows that he could never get elected, which is why he wants Harry to be the face of the whole thing, but you know Campbell is really going to be the one behind the scenes, pulling the strings the whole time. They want us to spy on Allie and report back to them.”

“Does Allie know about any of this?”

“Not yet,” Luke admitted, folding his arms across his chest. “I haven’t had the chance to be alone with her yet without Tweedledee and Tweedledum following me. _They_ are actually considering Campbell’s proposal.”

“Proposal?” Grizz asked, ignoring Luke’s jab at their friends. “Does that have anything to do with the drugs Campbell is supplying them?”

“That and there are a few specific ideas that Clark and Jason have in mind that they would like implemented. Campbell promised them that if they help him out, he would be open to their suggestions.”

“But Campbell is a maniac! Can you imagine what he would do if he was the one pulling the strings around here?”

“Shit,” Jace voiced from below them. “You guys got problems.” Alec elbowed his brother to shut him up.

“I know,” Luke spat out, irritation growing in his voice. 

“Look, Jason and Clark are waiting outside. We can decide what to do about them later, but Allie needs to know what is going on with Campbell and Harry. You need to warn her.”

Luke bit his lip as he contemplated the situation. Grizz completely understood his friend’s hesitation. Allie was dealing with a lot right now. She might be their town’s Mayor, but she was still a teenager just like the rest of them. She was already under so much pressure. A potential coup was the last thing she needed added to her plate right now.

“I know . . . I know,” Luke groaned before sighing in defeat. “Fine.” He gestured towards Jace and Alec. “Which one of us should go in first?” 


	8. Eight

**Chapter 8**

Luke led Grizz and his two traveling companions up the rest of the stairs and down a short hallway before coming to a stop at one of the doors. As Luke knocked lightly on the entrance, Grizz gestured to the bench that sat against the opposite wall and quietly asked Alec and Jace to wait outside for a few minutes. 

Hearing the soft reply from inside the office, Luke opened the door and held it open for Grizz before shutting it behind both of them.

The church office was fairly small with a simple layout. The walls were painted in a light tan color. Two bookcases had been placed on opposite sides of the wall across from the entrance, leaving room in between for the famous painting that hung in the center that depicted the image of Jesus and his twelve disciples at the Last Supper. A dark brown, Neela desk sat in the middle of the room over a blood red rug with two mahogany chairs positioned in front for visitors to sit in. A simple wooden bench was placed between the two windows that were on the wall to the right of the door.

Grizz wasn’t surprised to find Will sitting in one of the available chairs in the room. Will and Allie had been good friends long before everyone disappeared from West Ham, and since then, the two of them seemed to only grow closer. Now, Will had taken on the position of her advisor.

“Grizz!” Allie chirped, excited at seeing his safe return home. She turned away from the window that she had been staring out of and stepped closer to greet him. “How was your trip? Did you find any land for us to farm?”

“Well . . . Not exactly,” Grizz hesitated, stealing a glance in Luke’s direction. “We did find something though, and I think it could be just as useful in helping us as the farmland would have been. If not better.”

“Really?” Allie asked, raising an eyebrow. “What did you find?”

“Luke has something he needs to tell you as well,” Grizz said, gesturing with his thumb in his friend’s direction, ignoring Allie’s question for the moment. “You want the good or the bad news first?”

Based on the glare that Luke shot in Grizz’s direction, it was clear to Allie that one of her Guards was trying to hide something big from her. 

Allie trained her own glare onto Luke. “What now?” she asked, her tone turning stern.

With one last concerned look at Grizz, Luke sighed before admitting, “Campbell and Harry cornered us in the park yesterday. Campbell wants to help Harry take charge of the town by force, with Campbell being his advisor. He tried to talk Jason, Clark, and I into spying on you to help them find the right opportunity to take power.”

Allie folded her arms across her chest. “Yesterday? Why wasn’t I informed about this sooner?”

Luke gave a small shake of his head. “Jason and Clark are thinking about helping them. I haven’t had the chance to try to warn you about it without them hanging around until now.” He hesitated a moment before adding, “And as a further bribe, he gave them some weed.” 

Allie gave a heavy sigh. “Are they high right now?”

Luke simply nodded gravely. 

“Great,” Allie groaned. “Like we don’t already have enough to worry about . . .”

“Maybe I can help lift that burden a little?” 

Allie’s gaze drifted back to Grizz, studying him curiously.

“In the woods . . . we found another district,” he explained.

Allie frowned in confusion. “What?”

“We aren’t the only ones stuck here,” Grizz tried to explain. “There’s a city, or at least part of a city, out in the middle of the woods. Brooklyn.” 

“New York?” Will spoke up from his seat, blinking in shock at the announcement. “You found other people? More teenagers?”

“Yes, more people, but not all teenagers,” Grizz noted. “I’m not sure what happened there exactly, if there was some kind of justification for why some of them disappeared and others didn’t, but there seem to be people of all ages still living in Brooklyn. Just a lot fewer of them.”

“This didn’t just happen to West Ham?” Allie’s gaze drifted away from their faces, staring off into the distance as she tried to make sense of the situation.

“One of their leaders is here,” Grizz added.

This announcement brought Allie’s attention back to him. “Here?”

“He’s waiting out in the hallway with his brother. We thought maybe you guys should talk,” he explained, gesturing to the door behind him before shrugging. “Since we’re all stuck here, we thought we should use this opportunity to help each other out with supplies. Maybe even work together to find a way to get us all back home.”

A genuine smile brightened Allie’s face at the news. It had been a while since Grizz had seen her even relatively happy about anything. Certainly not since they had found themselves in this strange new world they were trapped in. 

“Well, send them in,” Allie demanded, turning to take a seat behind her desk. “It’s about time we had some good news for a change.”

Grizz peeked out the door into the hallway and waved the two men in, stepping out of their way to allow them inside the tiny office space. Grizz closed the door behind them before stepping forward to make the introductions. 

“This is Alec Lightwood-Bane. He’s one of the co-leaders in Brooklyn,” Grizz explained, pointing at the tall man with black hair before gesturing to the shorter blonde man standing next to him. “And that’s his brother, Jace. This is Allie Pressman, our town’s Mayor.”

Allie gestured for the men to take a seat in the chairs in front of her for their discussion, silently telling Will to get up, freeing it for their guests. Instead, Will moved to stand next to Allie behind the desk. 

“Co-leader?” A small frown appeared on Allie’s face as she studied the men in front of her. “He’s back in Brooklyn? Why didn’t he accompany you?”

“He had some business back in the city that he needed to address today,” Alec said, keeping his explanation simple. “We can arrange a meeting for the two of you to meet at another time.”

Grizz walked over to the small bench that was by the wall and made himself comfortable. Luke was heading over to join him when Allie stopped him. 

“Luke, I want you to go back outside with Jason and Clark.”

Luke stared back at her, perplexed at the demand. “You’re getting ready to formulate a trading agreement with our apparent neighboring city. Shouldn’t a member of the Guard be present for this?” 

“Grizz  _ is _ a member of the Guard,” Will pointed out, gesturing in the mentioned teen’s direction.

Allie nodded in agreement. “Not only that, but Grizz was the leader of the expedition that set off into the woods and found the city. Something may come up that requires him to explain more about what happened while he was out there.”

“If this is about what happened with Harry and Campbell–”

“This has nothing to do with whether or not I trust you, Luke,” Allie stated firmly. “You came forward and told me about the two of them. I don’t believe you are going to try and double cross me or anything.”

“Then why–?”

“You just told me that Jason and Clark are both high right now, yes? And are considering Campbell’s . . . partnership?”

Luke nodded slowly.

“I really don’t think those two should be left alone right now, Luke,” Allie explained, furrowing her brow to further state the seriousness of her demand, and Will crossed his arms across his chest in solidarity. “I want you to go back outside and keep an eye on them. We will fill you guys in on the agreement later.”

Luke met her eyes momentarily before glancing at Grizz who just gave him a small shrug. 

“Fine,” Luke relented and began to head for the door.

“And let me know if Harry or Campbell try to approach you guys again about this,” Allie called after him before the door slammed shut behind Luke.

* * * 

As the boy that Grizz had identified as Luke walked out of the room, Alec couldn’t help but be a little impressed by the teenager that was sitting behind the desk. He had initially been a little wary about the idea of coming all this way to speak to a teenage mundane about something that could affect the futures of both of their districts, but this young woman at least seemed to have a relatively good head on her shoulders despite finding herself in such a tough position at her tender age. 

“Okay,” Allie let out in a soft sigh once the door had been closed behind Luke, and she locked eyes with Alec. “Look, honestly, we don’t have a lot that we can spare for trading, but we’ll be willing to help you guys in any way we can for help in return.”

“Yeah, I understand that,” Alec admitted, leaning forward slightly in his chair. “Before we came here, I spoke with Magnus, my co-leader, about a list of things that we could spare to help you out and things that we are in dire need of.”

Alec noted the look of relief that flashed across the face of the woman across from him.

“Great, let's start with you guys then. What do you have that you could spare.”

“Well, clothes for one thing.” Alec heard Jace chuckle softly at that as his blonde companion shifted briefly in his seat beside him, and Alec smirked at his brother’s reaction. “There are a lot of clothing stores in Brooklyn, but because of what’s going on . . . Not a whole lot of it is being used. We also have a few greenhouses that people have been attending to around the city, and Magnus and I have been working on squaring off a section of our park for a garden or farming land to use when the weather starts getting warmer.” 

At this point, Alec paused to gesture towards the boy that was sitting against the wall. “Grizz told us that the reason you originally sent their group out into the woods was to look for land to farm, but honestly you could set up something here for that. There has to be a lot of open land in people’s backyards or courtyards that you could set up small farming locations in.” 

“We do have one greenhouse here,” Grizz stepped in, “and I set up a community garden on the other side of town, but it’s not that big. We need something bigger to be able to sustain everyone that we have living here.”

Jace nodded at the boy. “We could work out a more elaborate plan when it starts getting warmer, but we should have a discussion on what each of us will grow. We could trade crops with each other.”

Alec nodded in agreement before turning back to Allie. “Also, you should probably keep in mind, we have a few doctors and nurses that didn’t disappear on us. I know all of your adults vanished in . . . whatever it was that happened with us. If something ever comes up where you need a medic, just let us know.” 

“Thank you, we’d really appreciate that,” Allie said, her tone filled with gratitude. “And, Grizz, could I put you in charge of setting up other gardening locations around town?”

Grizz nodded. “I’m on it.”

“All of that would be great, Alec,” Will thanked him as well, “but there’s got to be something that we can give you in return for all of your help. What do you need?” 

Alec bit his bottom lip gently as he tried to think of the best way to bring up the subject. Ever since he had the discussion with Magnus the night before on a rough outline for their trading agreement, Alec had not been looking forward to this moment. He hadn’t even considered the issue himself until Magnus had brought it to his attention. What they needed the most right now wasn’t exactly something that mundanes would usually qualify as a basic need, but among some of the Downworlders . . . It would definitely cause a problem if they couldn’t find a way to resolve it and fast. 

“We need blood.”

* * *

_ A few hours had passed since the four teenage mundanes had stumbled into their mini version of the once loud and bustling city that it used to be, looking for help. With the assistance of Isabelle and Clary, Grizz, Mickey, Bean, and Gwen had been made to feel at home in the apartment for the night, giving Alec and Magnus time to discuss their plans for the next day. _

_ Magnus tapped his pen a couple times against the paper that was lying on his desk in front of him. A short list had been compiled on the page of what little they could spare to try and help the teenagers that have probably found themselves way out of their element. _

_ “Well, it’s not much, but it’s better than nothing,” Magnus mused as he studied the list. _

_ Alec had pulled up a chair next to his husband, glancing at the words over his shoulder.  _

_ “They’ve probably been through a lot already,” Alec reminded him, tapping a finger against the corner of the piece of paper. “I’m sure they will appreciate all of this.” _

_ The warlock nodded slowly. “I know, but they are just teenagers. I wish we could do more.” _

_ Alec rested a hand on Magnus’ arm, giving it a light squeeze. Alec might not have had the best memories and experiences with mundanes, but he knew his husband had a slightly different opinion when it came to the clueless creatures. Over the warlock’s long life, he had grown close to many of them, fighting side-by-side in wars and even falling in love with a few. Magnus already had such a kind heart in general when it came to helping others, especially children. Knowing that there was a group of kids out there, stuck on their own in this strange new world they had found themselves in . . . Alec knew it had to be hard on the deeply compassionate man that sat next to him.  _

_ Alec was silent for a moment, before turning their conversation back to the matter at hand. “Okay, so now that we have an idea of what we could give them, what do we need?” _

_ Magnus tapped his pen a few more times before responding. “Well, we are talking about a relatively small group of teenagers in a suburban town. They probably don’t have a ton that they can spare . . . but the one thing we definitely need is mundane blood.” _

_ Alec sat up straighter in his seat, furrowing his eyebrows in surprise. That was the last thing he had expected to come out of his husband’s mouth, and it was spoken so matter-of-factly. “Blood?” _

_ “For the vampires,” Magnus explained, turning to look into his husband’s eyes. By the tone in his voice, the warlock clearly thought the issue should have been obvious. “They can’t drink Shadowhunter blood. It’s too addictive for them, and they don’t get any sustenance by drinking from other Downworlders. The blood that was on tap at the Hunter’s Moon and the stuff in the blood banks at the hospital are starting to run low.”  _

_ “And how am I supposed to bring up a request like that?” Alec asked, horrified about the situation that Magnus was laying out in front of him.  _

_ “You’ll have to come up with something . . . Tell them we have some sick people in the hospital that desperately need blood for infusions or something,” Magnus said, rubbing his temples. “What do you think is going to happen when the vampire clan hears that there is a town of mundane children just a short distance from here? As soon as the sun goes down, they will go over there and massacre the town in their sleep, Alec. We have to come up with a system where the vampires can get the blood supply they need while also keeping those mundanes alive.”  _


	9. Nine

**Chapter 9**

As Alec and Jace sat fidgeting uncomfortably in the awkward silence, Allie jotted down a few more notes on the paper in front of her, wanting to have a rough outline of their trading agreement written down. Her cheeks were colored a soft pink, and her hand was shaking a little as she tried to write. Beside her, Will had gone quiet, staring back at the men between narrowed eyes. 

Grizz was shocked too. After Alec had admitted that he knew the teens couldn’t help them out with much, Grizz had expected that they wouldn’t be offering much in return. His puzzlement had only grown as the pair had continued to list out what they had to give to help them. It hadn’t made sense why they would be so kind for so little in return. 

But . . . _ blood _? No wonder they were being so generous. 

“Will?” Allie turned to look at him as she completed her notes, finally breaking the silence. “Can you send out a message notifying everyone to meet at the church tomorrow? We’ll have to go over all this with everyone.”

“If you want, Magnus and I could come back tomorrow and help you address everyone about this,” Alec offered. “I know what we are asking for is . . . well, not normal. Not under these circumstances-”

“No,” Allie interrupted him, her voice much softer than before. She kept her eyes glued towards the desktop, avoiding making eye contact with their guests. “I get it. Your people need help. With everything you are doing for us, it’s the least we can do. But, yeah, if you guys wouldn’t mind coming to talk to them yourselves . . . I have no idea how this will go over with everyone and having you explain the reasoning behind your request . . . It might help things go over a little smoother.” 

“We should probably head back home with the Guard,” Will advised Allie. “We still need to figure out what we are going to do about Campbell and Harry.” 

Shuffling the papers around in her hands, Allie nodded before standing up. Only then did she raise her eyes towards Alec again. “I’ll schedule the meeting for ten o'clock tomorrow morning. Can you and Magnus be here by then?”

Alec nodded and stood up himself, Jace following suit. “Sure. We’ll meet you right outside the church.”

“Great. We’ll see you tomorrow then.” Pushing in her desk chair, Allie headed for the door with Will close on her heels. “You guys are welcome to stay in West Ham for lunch if you want,” she called over her shoulder before disappearing down the hallway, leaving the door open behind her.

“Think we freaked her out with the blood bank request?” Jace asked, slanting his head in Alec’s direction.

“What did you expect?” Grizz spoke up before Alec could answer his brother. “You asked us to pay you in blood for clothes, crops, and medical help. You couldn’t have thought that was going to go over well.”

“Of course not,” Alec said in a firm voice as he eyed Jace who was opening his mouth to probably prepare another rash response. Once he was sure the blonde wasn’t about to put his foot in his mouth, Alec turned to Grizz. “I understand how big of a request this is, but our people need help. Blood is what we need the most right now. I wouldn’t have asked otherwise.”

Grizz stared at them for a moment, deep in thought, before he sighed and got to his feet. “Do you guys want to join Sam and me for lunch?”

A relieved smile crossed Alec’s face. “Sure, that would be great.”

Letting the eerie feeling over the men’s strange request disappear from his thoughts for the time being, Grizz listened to the soft sounds of Alec and Jace’s footsteps as they followed him back out into the hallway and down the stairs.

Pushing their way through the doors of the church, Grizz quickly spied Sam, and his mouth grew into a goofy grin at the sight of the teenager that he had crushed on for so long.

“So, is your boyfriend here?” Jace asked, scanning the empty green landscape in front of them. 

Grizz nodded and pointed in the direction of the roofed structure that was built in the middle of the grassy field. “You see the redhead sitting in the gazebo?” he asked, glancing back over his shoulder to see the men’s reactions. “That’s Sam.”

Sam chose that moment to glance up from the book he was reading, and a huge smile spread across the boy’s face when he saw Grizz. 

As Sam turned back to get his stuff together, a thought occurred to Grizz and he slowly turned around to look at Alec and Jace. “Um, you guys don’t perhaps know sign language by chance, do you?”

“Uh, no?” The men shared a look. “Why?”

“Sam is deaf,” Grizz explained, using the sign that he had recently learned for ‘deaf’. 

“So, _ you _ know sign language?” Alec guessed.

“I’m learning.”

By now, Sam had thrown the strap of his gray satchel bag over one shoulder and was heading their way. 

“Look, Sam _ can _ read lips and he speaks fairly well. Just make sure you are looking at him when you talk and don’t speak too fast. He’ll pick up on what you’re saying,” Grizz explained quickly before turning back in time to embrace the boy that had been charging towards him.

Grizz chuckled softly at Sam’s enthusiasm, relieved to see no signs of the depressed teen that Becca had described, and gently pushed the boy far enough away that he could read his lips.

“I missed you too,” Grizz joked, which led to Sam giving his shoulder a playful shove. 

Then Sam caught sight of the two men standing behind his boyfriend. 

“Sam, this is Alec and Jace,” Grizz explained, slowly fingerspelling the names for him. “They-”

“I know,” the redhead interrupted in his monotone voice. “Becca filled me in.”

Alec gently waved a hand to get Sam’s attention. “It’s nice to finally meet you. Grizz has mentioned you quite a bit. Sounds like you have been helping him become more comfortable with his sexuality.” 

Sam narrowed his eyes at Grizz. “You told them?” He didn’t sound angry. Just surprised.

“Just Alec and Jace. Alec is gay too. He and his husband are co-leaders in Brooklyn.”

“We’re not going to tell anyone,” Jace promised the redhead. “Grizz has made it clear that he is not ready for anyone else to know yet.”

“Especially Campbell,” Grizz mumbled to himself. Sam’s eyes were still trained on Jace, but Alec and Jace heard him. Grizz touched Sam’s arm to get his attention again. “Have you had lunch yet?”

Sam shook his head, smirking at him. 

“Come on.” Grizz waved for Alec and Jace to follow him. “We’ll get something at my house.” 

* * *

Ever since the Guard had been assigned to watch over Allie, Grizz and his friends had agreed to take turns staying overnight at her house. The last couple of days before Grizz was scheduled to leave on his trip, he had agreed to take on a few extra shifts at their Mayor’s house. It had been almost two weeks since he had been back inside his own residence, but walking up the front walkway towards his door, it felt like so much longer. 

Retrieving the keys to his front door from under the mat, Grizz let Alec, Jace, and Sam into the unusually quiet house in West Ham. Ever since Cassandra had ordered that the teenagers start bunking together in other people’s houses, it was rare to find someone that still lived in their own home without several roommates hanging around. It was one of the few perks of being a member of the Guard. If he wanted to, he was allowed to still spend his free nights alone in his own house. 

“You can leave your coats in the dining room,” Grizz said, nodding in the direction of the room as he closed and locked the door behind him. Sam had already disappeared behind the wall, already accustomed to the instructions from the few times he had come over in the past. 

By the time Grizz had followed the three boys into the room, he was just able to catch the back of Sam as he continued through the archway on the other side of the room that led into the kitchen. Jace had draped his heavy winter coat over one of the chairs and started to follow Sam farther into the house before Grizz stopped him.

“Could you and Alec take your shoes off here?” he asked, bending down to untie his own hiking boots.

Jace frowned at him. “What about Sam?”

“Sam hasn’t been tracking through the woods all day,” Grizz reminded him with a scowl, and Alec started to take his off without complaint. “I don’t want the mud and dirt all over the house.” 

Kicking off his own footwear, he went after his boyfriend into the kitchen and began to pull out ingredients from the fridge to prepare their lunch. Fifteen minutes later, Grizz was dishing out the instant potatoes from the pot onto four plates, accompanied with a slice or two of the frozen breaded chicken tenders that he had heated up. With Sam’s help filling glasses with water, they were soon all gathered around the kitchen table eating their meal. 

As they ate, Sam asked Grizz about his trip, with Alec and Jace piping up here and there with their own commentary when they wished. 

Their plates were almost clear when Grizz turned to address Alec. “Do you want to just stay here tonight instead of returning in the morning for the meeting?” 

Alec took a sip of his water. “Maybe. I would need to let Magnus know about the meeting though and update him on what happened with Allie. Let me give him a call.”

Leaving the table, Alec pulled out his phone as he stepped into the other room for some privacy to make his phone call. 

They sat in awkward silence around the table for a moment. Jace was just about to break the quiet when Alec suddenly reappeared. 

“That’s weird,” Alec said staring down at his phone.

“What happened?” his brother asked.

“The call wouldn’t go through.”

Grizz’s fork pinged softly as he set it down on his plate. “We have been having some problems getting into contact with people outside of town,” he explained. 

“What do you mean?” Alec stepped closer to the table.

“The Junior and Senior students from our school were scheduled to go away for a two-week camping trip. The roads were blocked, so the buses had to turn around and they dropped us back off in town. When we got back, everyone was just . . . gone,” Grizz explained. “We tried calling our parents and other family members, but no one would pick up. None of our calls would go through. Ever since, we have only been able to make contact with people here in town.”

“We’ve been having a similar problem in Brooklyn,” Alec admitted. “My dad was living in Idr- . . . uh, out of the country with our little brother, Max. And my mom, she was one of the people to disappear from New York, we haven’t been able to make contact with any of them, but . . .”

Grizz’s face scrunched up in confusion at Alec’s stumble in his explanation, but let it go as Jace spoke up.

The blonde nodded slowly, understanding to his brother’s puzzlement. “It is kind of strange that we can’t call each other from here to Brooklyn when we are all trapped in the same place.”

Sliding his phone back into his pocket, Alec took his seat again at the table. “We’ll have to head home after lunch then so I can talk to Magnus. Maybe he’ll have a theory as to why our phones aren’t working too.”

“So, how did it happen for you guys?”

Jace frowned at Grizz. “What?”

“The disappearances,” Grizz expressed. “Did anything strange happen during the weeks leading up to it?”

Alec and Jace shared a look before turning back to him. “Nothing more strange than usual.”

Grizz narrowed his eyes at the phrasing, and Sam raised an eyebrow.

“We live in New York,” Alec quickly amended Jace’s statement. “Any weird activities or people acting strange on the streets are typically ignored among passerbys. Why? Did something happen here?”

“The smell,” Sam said, making a gesture under his nose in his language.

Grizz nodded. “For a couple weeks leading up to the field trip, there was this bad smell that drifted into our town. Sam found some letters and other paperwork in his dad’s office that Campbell convinced him to destroy, but they said that his dad and uncle had agreed to pay someone to get rid of the smell and once it was gone, they refused to pay up. The smell returned soon after and the next day we were supposed to leave for our camping trip.”

“And then you ended up stuck here?” Jace finished.

“Yeah,” Grizz agreed, and Sam nodded next to him.

“We didn’t experience any kind of smell in New York,” Alec explained. “Everything seemed pretty normal up until the day it happened.”

“What happened?” Sam asked.

The two men shared another look out of the corner of their eyes before Jace hesitantly said, “We don’t know what exactly it was. Just . . . one day there was this sort of explosion in New York, and this bright light pulsed down the streets and throughout the city. Afterwards . . . when the light died down . . .”

“People just disappeared right in front of us,” Alec picked up the story. “It wasn’t until later that we learned that most of New York had vanished along with everyone else.”

“Do you have any idea why the people that didn’t disappear are still in Brooklyn?” Grizz questioned, leaning over the table. 

“What do you mean?” Alec asked, tilting his head slightly to one side.

“Well . . . So many people just vanished from your home. Why did you, and the few that are still in Brooklyn, not disappear when this explosion happened? Does everyone who stayed have anything in common?”

“Umm,” Alec hummed as he shared yet another look with Jace, this one much more obvious than the last. Grizz was starting to get the feeling that they were hiding something.

“Not that we know of,” Jace answered eventually. 

“Why were you alone with Campbell in your dad’s office?” Alec asked Sam before Grizz could question them further, seemingly trying to find a way to change the subject. “According to Grizz, Campbell is a psychopath. You probably shouldn’t be alone with him at any point.”

Sam shook his head. “I’m used to it.”

Alec gave him a puzzled look. “What do you mean?”

Sam bit his lip softly in hesitation before glancing at Grizz who gave him a small nod in reassurance. 

“Campbell is my brother.”


	10. Ten

**Chapter 10**

After lunch, Sam wandered off to look through Grizz’s bookshelves that were displayed in the living room while Jace had disappeared off somewhere in the house, leaving Grizz and Alec to deal with the dirty dishes alone. 

The way Jace just assumed it was okay to snoop around his property without permission was slightly aggravating to Grizz, but, honestly, he wasn’t that surprised. He hadn’t even known the guy for twenty-four hours, and Grizz was already picking up on a few traits that he didn’t care for in the man. In the few hours he had spent getting to know Jace, he came off to him as arrogant and self-centered, the complete opposite of his brother, Alec. 

As both of their companions entertained themselves with their own activities, Grizz and Alec worked side-by-side in front of the kitchen sink, Grizz washing the dishes before passing them on to Alec to towel dry. 

“That’s why you don’t want Campbell to know, isn’t it?” Alec spoke up quietly, breaking the silence that had drifted over the room.

Grizz frowned at the question. “What about Campbell?”

“Back at the church, you said something about how you and Sam especially didn’t want Campbell to know that the two of you are together,” Alec elaborated, taking the dripping plate that Grizz handed him. “It’s because he’s-”

“Campbell’s little brother?” Grizz sighed, interrupting him. “Yeah. He kicked Sam out of their house soon after everyone else disappeared and they haven’t had much interaction with each other since, but . . . Sam’s brother terrorized him growing up and has always giving him a hard time for being gay. When Campbell finds out about us . . .”

“Hey Alec, are you almost ready to go?” Jace asked, strolling back into the room before Grizz could figure out how to continue his train of thought. “If we’re heading back tonight, I’d like to get going soon so we’ll have plenty of time to get back before the sunsets. It’ll be a lot harder to get home if we get turned around out in the middle of the woods in the dark.”

“Yeah, almost,” Alec called over his shoulder as he retrieved the last of the silverware from the teenager beside him. Quickly drying them off, he placed the forks on the pile of plates that were now stacked to the right of the sink. Folding the towel he had been using, Alec set it down on the counter before turning to follow the blonde back into the dining room to grab their shoes and coats. 

Grizz quickly returned the cups, plates, and silverware to their proper cupboards and drawers before following their guests to the front door to see them out. With a last promise from Alec that he will be back tomorrow with his husband for the assembly at the church, the brothers left the residence to begin their journey back home. 

Locking the front door behind them, Grizz made his way into the living room to find his boyfriend sitting cross-legged against the wall next to the bookcase, a bolster pillow propped up behind him. Sensing his approach, Sam looked up from the book he was looking at, smiling when he saw Grizz.

“What are you reading?” Grizz asked, sitting down beside him as he brushed a few stray hairs behind his ear. Irritatingly, it fell right back into his peripheral vision.

Sam held up the book so he could read the title. Studying the cover, Grizz frowned in confusion and he glanced skeptically at the bookcase to their right. He was sure he had never seen that book on the shelves before. 

“I got it at the library,” the red-head signed as he spoke, and Grizz’s frown vanished in favor of a smirk, the memory of Sam reading a book in the gazebo drifting back to him.

“Where are Alec and Jace?”

“They just left,” Grizz explained. Sam nodded his head and turned back to his book. Grizz rested a hand on the boy’s knee to grab his attention again, allowing concern to enter his eyes before he spoke. “Are you okay?”

Sam’s eyebrows furrowed, and he let his book close in his lap so he could freely use both of his hands to sign. “I’m fine, why?”

“Becca said you’ve been worried about me all week.”

Sam lowered his gaze, biting his lip gently, and Grizz had to tap his fingertips against his leg to get him to look at him again.

“I’m sorry,” Grizz said, signing the word. “The last thing I wanted to do was worry you.”

Sam shook his head. “It’s not your fault. You had to go. I understand.”

Grizz nodded slowly and gave him a sly smile, some of the guilt lifting from his shoulders at Sam’s words.

“Hey, do you want that book back that you gave me before I left?”

Sam waved him off. “It wasn't mine. I found it in one of the English classrooms at school.”

“Oh . . .” Grizz thought about that for a moment. “That explains all the highlights and notes throughout the pages.”

Sam chuckled, just like Grizz had hoped he would, especially given what he was going to bring up next.

“I have to go to Allie’s house for a little while. Is that okay?”

“Why?” Sam frowned. “What’s going on?”

Grizz sighed. “Apparently, your brother is causing trouble again. We need to discuss what we are going to do about him.”

“Oh . . .”

“You’re welcome to stay and hang out here while I’m gone,” Grizz said. “I shouldn’t be too long.”

Sam nodded gratefully. “What has Campbell done this time?”

Grizz bit his lip, deep in thought. He didn’t really want to have this conversation with Sam right now; not with his cousin being the one that Campbell was currently targeting. 

“I’ll explain everything to you later,” Grizz promised, before a smile grew on his face. “Are you spending the night here?” 

Sam nodded hopefully, his eyes lighting up at the prospect of getting to spend more time with him after being away from each other for a week. 

“Alright.” Grizz leaned forward to give Sam a small kiss on his lips. “I’ll be back soon.”

* * *

Letting himself into Allie’s house, Grizz caught movement in the sitting room to his left and turned to find Luke handing glasses of water to Jason and Clark who were starting to come down from their highs. 

Locking eyes with him, Luke nodded towards the hallway. “Allie and Will are waiting in the kitchen.”

“Okay, thanks.”

“I’ll be there in a minute,” Luke called after him as Grizz headed farther into the house.

Hearing him approach, Will and Allie glanced up from their seats at the island, Allie nursing a mug of tea in between her hands.

“Have Alec and Jace left yet?” A frown appeared on Will's face as the names left his lips. Grizz assumed he still hadn’t gotten over the strange request the men had made of them. 

“Yeah.” Grizz leaned against the side of the island. “Alec promised that he and Magnus will return in time for the meeting tomorrow. Have you told everyone yet?”

“I texted Gordie,” Allie replied. “He’ll make sure everyone knows to be at the church on time.” 

“I still don’t think you should have agreed so quickly,” Will reproached. 

“What would you have preferred I do?” Allie glared at her advisor. “They have offered to help us with our food supply. Not to mention the medical care. We need their help, Will.”

“But in return they want  _ blood _ ? Just blood? Nothing else?” Will’s gaze flickered between Allie and Grizz, a desperate look in his eyes. “Come on, I can’t be the only one that thinks something fishy is going on here.”

“We have other things to worry about right now,” Luke announced, taking his place across from Grizz before addressing Allie. “What do you want to do about Jason and Clark?”

Their young Mayor sighed, staring into her cup. “I’ll confront them about their alleged disloyalty later. Campbell is the bigger concern right now.”

“We told you, you shouldn’t have let him go before,” Will scolded under his breath.

Allie pursed her lips. “You mean after we arrested him for killing my sister? He was innocent of that charge.”

“But Sam warned us then that Campbell was psychotic,” he reminded her. Will gestured in Luke’s direction who was standing next to him. “We told you, we can’t have someone like that running around free. Not when we don’t have any real police officers around to help us. With everything else that we have going on right now, the last thing we need is someone like him loose on the streets.” 

Allie shook her head in frustration. Resentment at her friend’s constant dispute over her choices today was quickly wearing her down. “Despite everything that is happening, I still stand by what I said back then. We can’t arrest someone for what they  _ might _ do.”

“Maybe not arrest,” Luke shyly proposed, “but don’t they have places where they take in people like that? Insane asylums?”

“Mental hospitals,” Grizz corrected. “That’s a lot different from jail. It includes therapy and medications, things that we don’t know how to deal with. We can’t just lock someone up, say we are helping them, and  not act out some kind of 'healing' plan . This is way beyond our capabilities.” 

“Okay,” Luke drew out the word as he contemplated something. “Well, then what about this new plan of his? I mean, he’s talking about overthrowing our current leader and taking power. Isn’t  _ that _ considered a crime? Couldn’t we arrest him for  _ this _ ?”

Silence drifted over the room, only intruded by the muffled voices of Jason and Clark goofing around a couple rooms over. 

Allie slowly raised her mug of lukewarm tea to her lips. “That’s true . . . Although he hasn’t really done anything yet that we can arrest him for. Right now it’s all just talk.”

Grizz nodded in agreement. “It would also be easier to sentence them if we can get Jason and Clark to agree to testify against Campbell and Harry.”

* * *

Two hours after Alec and Jace had left Grizz’s home, Alec let himself into the loft that he shared with his husband. He had parted ways with his parabatai outside of the Institute, leaving him to update Isabelle and Clary on the day’s adventures. Usually, Alec would have relished the opportunity to sit down with his friends and family after a long day to discuss everyone’s outlandish, supernatural pursuits, but he was drained from the day’s events and had just wanted to get back to Magnus.

“Magnus?” Alec called as he walked into the living room. No reply reached his ears, but he did hear someone moving around upstairs. 

Climbing the spiral staircase, Alec stepped foot into another sitting room. This one contained a good-sized television that was displayed on a table against one wall and a large ‘U’ shaped, gray couch took up the majority of the space. A dark blue carpet laid under the couch and wooden coffee table. To one side of the TV was a huge shelving unit that held Magnus’ large DVD collection, which Alec was sure had to have taken years for the immortal warlock to build up. To his right, sliding glass doors stood open, leading out onto a sizable terrace, certainly bigger than the balcony on the floor below.

Approaching the open door, Alec found Magnus leaning back in one of the outdoor sofas that covered the patio.

“Mags?”

A smile spread across the warlock’s face as he turned to meet his eyes.

“Alexander,” Magnus greeted, leaning forward. “Did you just get back?”

Alec hummed his affirmative as he joined his husband on the couch. 

“How did it go?”

Alec let out a heavy sigh. “Well, like we expected, they were pretty shocked about our request.”

The warlock’s face radiated sympathy for his spouse, but Alec didn’t miss the apprehension that was in the man’s eyes as well.

“Did they not agree to the arrangement?”

“No . . . their leader, Allie, agreed to it, but she seemed hesitant at first. Her ‘advisor’ seemed pissed off by the request. I think it was the offer of medical assistance in the future that won them over.”

Magnus took a sip from the alcoholic drink he had been holding. “Hmm, right.”

“How did your meeting with the Downworlders go?”

“The pressure on Raphael to find a substitute for the depleting blood supply has grown greatly over the last couple weeks. He’s certainly becoming more irritable due to his subordinates' harassment towards him,” Magnus admitted. Allowing Alec to wrap an arm around his shoulders, he leaned into his Shadowhunter’s chest. “I was reluctant to tell him about our neighboring town, though, until we found out if they would willing supply us with more blood.”

Alec nodded in understanding. “Allie is arranging a meeting with her town’s residents tomorrow morning to discuss the agreement we made today. I promised her we would be there to help her explain everything to them.”

“Probably a good idea,” Magnus agreed. “The last thing we need right now is the teenagers in West Ham becoming hostile towards us. We have to be careful with how we handle this from here.”

“Yeah,” Alec sighed, leaving a light kiss on Magnus’ forehead as his partner stared into his glass. “What about Meliorn? Any updates from him?”

“He’s been in contact with the Seelie Queen in her realm,” he reluctantly informed him. “Nothing noteworthy yet. They’re still looking.”


	11. Eleven

**Chapter 11**

A few minutes before ten o’clock, Allie stood in front of the church steps watching the towns’ teenage residents walk passed her and into the building, chatting softly with their friends. Folding her arms across her chest, she hoped she was succeeding in hiding her apprehension. Luke, Grizz, Bean, Gwen, and Mickey gathered around her.

Mickey frowned. “Where is Will?” 

“He’s back at my house, keeping watch over Jason and Clark,” Allie explained, lowering her voice so the students walking by wouldn’t hear.

“Have you had the chance to talk to them yet?” Grizz asked.

“Talk to them about what?” Bean raised an eyebrow as she glanced between Grizz and Allie.

Allie shook her head at Grizz before turning to Bean. “Nothing you need to worry about. I’ll handle it later.” 

Luke stayed silent, staring at the ground as if he was hoping the earth would swallow him up. 

Grizz couldn’t help but feel bad for his friend. Having to be in his position and turning their friends over to Allie couldn’t have been easy, but at least now they could figure out what they were going to do about Campbell. They all knew it was only a matter of time before the guy tried to mess up their way of life anyway.

Allie, meanwhile, scanned the open courtyard that was still filled with a few stragglers milling around in the grass. “Where is Alec?” she asked, foot tapping in annoyance. 

Grizz watched the young woman’s nervous fidgeting. “I’m sure he and Magnus are on their way,” he tried to reassure her. “They should be here any minute.”

He caught Allie biting her lip anxiously before noticing a certain red-head out of the corner of his eye. Sam approached the church with Becca beside him, who signed something causing the boy to smile at her. Turning away, Sam’s eyes lit up when he saw Grizz. Sending a smirk his way, Grizz gave him a small nod before the pair climbed the steps and disappeared inside the church. 

“There they are,” Gwen exclaimed, stepping up next to Grizz and pointing at the street. 

All five heads turned in unison in the direction Gwen had pointed to see two men walking their way. 

“Are we late?” Alec asked as the pair drew closer. He scanned the quickly emptying grounds in concern.

Grizz shook his head. “Right on time,” he confirmed before gesturing towards the blonde teenager and his childhood friend. “Magnus, this is Allie, our town’s Mayor, and my friend, Luke.”

“Magnus,” Allie greeted the Asian man with a small nod. “Alec said you had a meeting to attend yesterday, which was why you couldn’t be here before. Is everything okay?”

Magnus nodded. “As well as can be expected in this strange new world we have found ourselves in. Really, it was more of an informal check in to make sure all of our residents are being taken care of and are having their needs met,” he explained. His voice sounded playful, almost flirty. Sharing a small look with Alec, he continued on with a more serious tone. “I do apologize for the . . . unusual request we are making. Believe me, we wouldn’t normally do something like this. If it weren’t for . . . our current circumstances.”

“No, I get it,” Allie reassured slowly. “I can’t imagine what your people have been going through lately. Must be hard. I’m just worried about how  _ my _ people are going to handle this news.”

“Well, that is why we are here, peanut,” Magnus replied.  A slight grimace crossed Allie’s face at the nickname, but Magnus acted like he didn't notice it.  “Hopefully we can help assure everyone that this is not some sort of power play, that we legitimately need you guys’ help.” 

“So . . .” Alec sighed, clasping his hands behind his back as he addressed Allie. “How do you want to do this?” 

“I thought we should start out with something light-hearted,” Allie said. “Christmas is coming up in a few weeks, so I think I’ll start off the meeting with an announcement of what our plans will be for the holiday. Then we’ll move on to our expedition team.” She paused long enough to nod in the group's direction. “I’m sure everyone is going to want to hear some details about what happened out there. If there is anything you feel like we should be aware of, now would be the time to tell everyone.” Allie waited to see the four heads nod before turning to Alec and Magnus. “Then we’ll move on to the trading agreement.” 

“Allie,” someone called behind them.

The blonde glanced over her shoulder to find Gordie propping the door to the church open with one hand.

“Everyone’s here,” he announced.

“Thanks, Gordie,” Allie said. “We’ll be right there.” The boy disappeared inside again, the door swinging shut behind him with a soft bang, and Allie turned back to the group gathered around her. “Any questions?”

There was a moment of silence as the gathered individuals eyed each other. When no one voiced any concerns about the meeting, Bean shyly raised her hand.

“Not a question,” she started timidly, “but something has been bothering me ever since we returned from the trip yesterday.” Bean scanned the group in front of her again before continuing. “Do you guys mind staying back after the meeting to talk?”

“Sure,” Alec agreed, sharing a look with Magnus. “We’ve got time.”

“Alright,” Allie sighed after an awkward moment of silence. “Let’s get this over with.”

Entering the church, Luke followed Allie down the center aisle and up onto the platform, while Grizz led the rest of the group towards the walkway on the right side of the pews. Making their way to the open seats that were saved for them in the front row, several curious looks followed them as the crowd caught sight of the two adults in their mist. Hushed whispers filled the room.

Allie quickly got everyone's attention, allowing Grizz, Bean, Gwen, Mickey, Alec, and Magnus to make themselves comfortable without being scrutinized by the public's stares. 

Luke stood with his arms crossed a couple feet behind Allie as she stood behind the podium.

“Okay, so Christmas is only a few weeks away,” the blonde began when she had gotten the crowd's attention. “Similar to Thanksgiving, we will have a communal meal here in the church. Due to what happened a couple weeks ago, though, we will  _not_ be accepting any dishes that were made at home. Instead, everything will be prepared in the school’s cafeteria. If you have a recipe that you would like made for Christmas dinner, run them by Will, and he’ll see what he can do.”

“What happened at Thanksgiving?” Magnus asked, leaning over to whisper in Grizz’s ear.

“Someone poisoned one of the dishes,” Grizz whispered back. “We never figured out who it was. Several people got really sick.” 

“We are also arranging a Secret Santa,” Allie continued. “If you would like to participate in that, there will be a sign-up sheet on the bulletin board. We will be drawing names on Friday, so sign up soon if you want to join.” She took a short pause, letting her eyes drift to Alec and Magnus. “Moving on. By now, I’m sure you have all noticed that we have a couple visitors here today. Our expedition group returned yesterday and has made a discovery that we are hoping will turn out to be a helpful arrangement for us both. Grizz, Bean, Gwen, and Mickey. You want to come up and talk about what you found?” 

A murmur of low voices could be heard from around the room as Grizz and his fellow explorers stood and made their way up onto the platform. Everyone quickly quieted down again once Grizz started to speak.

“We started our journey by walking about two or three miles straight into the woods before turning east, heading passed where the turnpike used to be, making a big loop around West Ham,” Grizz began. 

A few pews back on the right side of the church, he saw Becca sitting next to Sam, signing something to him, probably translating what Grizz had said. Noticing his gaze, Sam smiled shyly in his direction. Feeling a soft blush growing on his face, Grizz peeled his gaze away from his boyfriend, criticizing himself for getting distracted so easily. That boy was going to be the death of him . . . He was going to have to be careful if he didn’t want others to start picking up on their relationship.

Luckily, Bean picked up where Grizz had left off. “On our fifth day, we came across something unsuspected.” She cast a look Alec and Magnus’ way. “At Thanksgiving, Gordie and I told you all about how we came to the conclusion that we seem to be in an alternate dimension. Well, it now appears we aren’t alone.”

“All of our family members may have disappeared, but another community has also found themselves stuck here under similar circumstances,” Gwen added. “We discovered another district, a city, out in the middle of the woods only about an hour's walk from here.”

Grizz jumped back in, gesturing towards the men that were still sitting in the front pew. “Alec, one of the city's co-leaders, came back with us yesterday to talk to Allie about setting up a trading agreement. Instead of organizing a large farming plantation, we are hoping that our two districts can help each other survive in this dimension and find a way to get back home.”

Grizz waved Alec and Magnus up. 

“They have offered to help us with our food supply, provide us with new clothes, and deliver medical assistance to us if anything were to happen in the future,” Allie explained as Alec and Magnus made their way to join the expedition group on the platform. “All they ask in return is-”

“It’s okay, Allie. We can take it from here,” Magnus interrupted, glancing at her over his shoulder before addressing the teenagers gathered in front of them. “Before we get into the details of what  _we_ want out of the trading agreement, let me just say that I understand how hard these past few months must have been for all of you.” Many of the faces around the room seemed to relax, and Grizz noticed a few smiles at Magnus’ encouraging words. “I can’t imagine how drastic your daily lives have changed, but from what little I have witnessed around your town, and what Alec has told me about his visit the other day, you have made impressive strides to maintain as normal a life as possible. Anything we can do to help support your way of life, besides for what your Mayor has already mentioned, let us know. We really do want to help in any way we can, but . . . I am afraid that we have to ask you all for something pretty big in return.” 

“The day that most of our people disappeared from Brooklyn, there was a bright flash of light that pulsed down the streets throughout our city,” Alec explained. “One minute, people were there, and then when the light died down, many had just . . . vanished. Along with causing many to disappear and cutting Brooklyn off from the rest of New York, this . . . explosion of light seems to have affected several of our residents in a different way.”

“The light has damaged the white blood cells in a number of our residents, and it is messing with their health,” Magnus said, continuing the story that he and Alec had discussed beforehand. “We have tried taking blood donations from our healthy residents, but the explosion must have damaged us somehow as well, only we don’t show symptoms of the infection.” He paused for a moment, glancing at Alec beside him. Letting out a slow breath, Magnus finally admitted, “We need healthy blood donations to help our sick.” 

As excited, agitated chatter began to build up inside the church, Grizz stole another look at his boyfriend in the crowd and waited as Becca caught up in translating for him. The red-head’s eyebrows raised in surprise at the deal that had been made and turned to stare at Grizz with questions in his eyes. 

A few raised voices could be heard over the growing noise.

“How often would we have to donate?”

“What about drug testing?”

“Do we  _all_ have to give blood?”

“Hey! Hey!” Allie’s voice rang out above the crowd. Stepping in front of their guests, she waited for their audience to quiet down before defending the request. “I know this is a lot to ask for, but just consider everything that they are willing to give _us_ in return. If you think about it, what we are getting back for this deal _highly_ outweighs what we will be giving them to help their sick.” Allie raised a hand to silence a few protests. “We will work out a system for how we will do this and how often. If anyone has any health issues of their own that will interfere with donating healthy blood, please let us know as soon as possible. Otherwise, we will get back to you with further details on how this will play out for the future.”

Having been dismissed, a few of the angry teens stormed out of the church, Campbell and Harry among them. Grizz briefly wondered if this deal that Allie had arranged with the citizens of Brooklyn would feed Campbell’s desire to take over her leadership as Mayor. This thought was brushed to the back of his mind when Bean called out into the dispersing crowd.

“Gordie? Could you stay back for a while?” 

Pushing his way through the displeased crowd that was making their way outside, Gordie leapt onto the platform to stand before Bean. “What’s up?”

“I have a new mystery we need to work out,” Bean explained. “You and I worked out the multiple dimension idea together. Want to help with this one too?”

Gordie scanned the group of individuals in front of him before shrugging. “Sure, why not? I’m always up for another puzzle.”

“Allie, do you have a scrap of paper I can use?” Bean asked, approaching the table that was set up on the platform behind them and waving everyone over as Allie handed her the paper along with a pen.

With Allie, Luke, Gordie, Grizz, Gwen, Mickey, Alec, and Magnus looking on, Bean leaned over the lined piece of paper and drew a rough circle covering about a fourth of the sheet.

“Okay, let's say this is West Ham,” Bean said, printing ‘WH’ inside the circle. She then made a small ‘x’ along the perimeter of the shape, “and this is where we first entered the woods.” She drew a line about half an inch in length out from the ‘x’ before turning the pen to the left, creating an arch that stretched a third of the way around the original circle and drew another shorter line before another circle. Another ‘x’ was made where the line met with the new circle. “And this is Brooklyn. We exited the woods into their park.” A ‘B’ was written in the new circle.

“Okay . . .” Gwen nodded slowly. “What is your point?” 

Bean narrowed her eyes at her before turning back to her drawing. “When we started to head home, we reentered the woods where we came out in the park and headed straight for West Ham.” From Brooklyn’s ‘x’, Bean drew a straight line, drawing a small square where this line connected with the West Ham’s circle. “And yet we came back out where we first entered the woods.” She tapped the bottom of the pen over the ‘x’ that she had identified as their starting mark. “Shouldn’t we have ended up miles away from that?”

Mickey reached over to pull the piece of paper closer to him to study, spinning it around on the table to look at from different angles. “Maybe we walked all the way around our town?” he tried to reason out, tracing his thoughts with his finger. “So, by the time we ran into the city . . . and coming straight home?”

A few of the teens around the table sent him confused looks leaving Mickey to simply shrug, obviously having trouble explaining himself.

Grizz shook his head, taking the page away from him and frowned at it. “I don’t think we walked that far.”

“Maybe it has to do with time zones,” Luke guessed. “You know, something trippy is going on with the woods to allow the sun to continue to rise and set at the appropriate times for each of us?”

“That’s an interesting theory,” Magnus piped up, “but Connecticut and New York are in the same time zone.”

Allie raised her head to look at Alec. “What happened when you and Jace went back to Brooklyn yesterday?”

“We reentered the woods in the same location we exited,” Alec explained. “We did come out about a mile away from the park though, closer to the Institute. At the time, Jace and I just assumed we must have gotten turned around somewhere in the woods.”

“I doubt we would have gotten  _this_ turned around,” Grizz said, pointing at the paper. “It took us almost a week to walk that distance. It’s not possible for us to have backtracked that far in just an hour or so.” 

Gordie folded his arms, the wheels spun in his head as he tried to work out the problem. “Then what the hell is happening out there?”


	12. Twelve

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry about the hiatus these past couple of weeks. September was a very stressful month for me and then my beta had a lot going on with school lately, so it took them a little while to get back to me with corrections. Hopefully, updates will be getting back on schedule now.

**Chapter 12**

Without any defining explanation as to what was going on with the forest surrounding their districts, Bean, Gwen, Mickey, and Gordie said their goodbyes to the others before going their separate ways, deciding to continue to puzzle it out at another time. Folding up Bean’s crude drawing, Allie stuffed the paper into her pocket to study later before slowly making her way back down the aisle behind Luke, Grizz, Alec, and Magnus.

“So, about the blood donations,” Allie spoke up as the group walked down the stairs outside of the church, coming to a stop in the grassy field. “How do you want to do this?”

“One of our friends, Catarina Loss, is a nurse back in New York. We were thinking about putting her in charge of organizing the procedures,” Alec explained. 

“I’ve already talked to her briefly about this already,” Magnus added. “She said that eight weeks between each blood transfusion is advised by the doctors. How many teens do you have living here?”

“Around two hundred and forty,” Allie said.

Magnus nodded, quickly doing the math in his head. “That means we’ll probably schedule thirty teens a week to get their blood drawn, rotating them all through every two months.”

“Well, this is a new one,” a familiar, charming voice spoke up from behind them. The group turned to find Campbell stepping into view from behind one the pillars of the church and descending the stairs with confidence. A smirk played on his lips as he stopped a few feet in front of Allie. “Using blood as currency? That’s rebellious, even for you.”

Luke quickly stepped in front of Allie and folded his arms across his chest. “Back off, Campbell.” 

Campbell raised an eyebrow at him. “I’m surprised you are actually going along with this.” He nodded in Alec and Magnus’ direction without taking his eyes off of Luke. “They are forcing us to give them  _blood_ or risk us starving to death.”

Before Alec or Magnus could defend themselves, Allie spoke up. “We have all found ourselves in a difficult situation, Campbell. I understand that the circumstances aren’t ideal, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t help.”

Campbell rolled his eyes. “Such an oblivious, little girl,” he mumbled to himself, and Allie glared at him over the comment. “This is clearly a power move. Once they learn that they can get something like blood out of us, what is going to keep them from asking for something even bigger.”

“This has nothing to do with trying to act  superior over you guys,” Alec said. “Our people need your help to survive. That’s it.” 

“And what about you?” Allie added as if Alec hadn’t spoken. She clearly meant for her voice to sound unnervingly calm, but her tone didn’t appear to bother Campbell one bit. “I hear that you are planning to try and start a revolt and take over as Mayor of West Ham. Yet,  _I’m_ the rebellious one? What would you even do differently?”

Campbell narrowed his eyes at Luke, who seemed to shrink slightly under his insistent stare. “I see we must have a mole in our group.” He turned back to Allie. “I’m sure you have been aware for a while now that many people have been getting tired of your reign as Mayor, ergo the reason why you are scheduling an election in the future. Besides, I’m helping Harry take power, not myself.”

“If you were so concerned about people not voting for you, what makes you think the public would vote for Harry knowing that you stand behind him?” Grizz tilted his head slightly as he studied the boy, folding his arms across his chest. “Having you as his advisor surely wouldn’t help him either.” 

“Grizz,” Allie cautioned him softly, looking over her shoulder. “This isn’t helping anything.”

“Yeah, Grizz,” Campbell taunted. “You wouldn’t want to get on my bad side. I don’t think you would like what would happen.”

“Like when you kicked Sam out of your house?”

Campbell raised an eyebrow at Grizz. “And why would  _you_ care about my faggy brother?”

“Campbell,” Allie’s voice darkened in a warning, but he ignored her.

Grizz sensed Magnus stiffen at Campbell’s word choice and he tried to keep a straight face as the tormentor continued, but he couldn’t control the cold shiver that ran up his spine at the psychopath’s next words. 

“I saw you hanging out with him last week, before you left on your trip. Something you want to tell us, Grizzy?”

Grizz felt a knot form in his throat. They had been so careful, only meeting in public places where it could have just been a coincidence for him and Sam to run into each other. At the library and the garden . . . It was possible that Campbell had spotted them walking home together though.

Trying to ignore the smirk that was coating Campbell’s features, Grizz swallowed his nerves. “I’m not allowed to make new friends?” he asked, hoping his voice sounded normal to the bully's ears.

“With a deaf kid? Not likely.” 

“Enough!” 

Grizz jumped at the sudden loud, authoritative voice that broke out behind him and glanced over his shoulder to find Alec standing straight with his hands clasped behind his back. The man was glaring at Campbell with a look that Grizz hadn’t seen on his face before. Yet, Magnus didn’t seem taken aback by Alec’s stoic expression, so it must not have been all that uncommon for him. 

“Campbell, was it? The town's resident psychopath?” Alec sent a questioning look at Grizz, who nodded in conformation. 

“Wait . . .” Luke spun around to stare at Alec and Grizz. “Psychopath?”

“Right,” Allie sighed. “You weren’t there when Sam explained that to us.”

“Of course,” Campbell chuckled softly to himself. “No way could my kindhearted baby brother keep a family secret if he thought he was protecting people.” He narrowed his eyes at Allie. “What are you going to do about it? Lock me up?”

“You haven’t given me a reason to . . . Yet.”

“Psychotic or not,” Alec pulled Campbell’s attention back to him. “That is still no excuse for your language.”

“Language?” Campbell huffed.

“I’m pretty sure Alexander is referring to your ‘fag’ comment from earlier,” Magnus explained.

Campbell tilted his head to one side as he narrowed his eyes at them. Before he could question them about their concern, Allie spoke up again.

“Aren’t you on the schedule to help prepare lunch today?” Campbell furrowed his eyebrows, but Allie pressed on ignoring his expression. “You’re going to be late.”

After a moment of awkward silence, a smirk snaked across his face. “Fine, I’ll go,” he said, before sending one last scowl in Grizz’s direction. “This isn’t over, Grizzy.”

Grizz let out a heavy sigh as Campbell stormed away, heading in the direction of the high school. He wasn’t looking forward to later when he would undoubtedly have to tell Sam that his brother was on to them. 

“Are you guys heading back to Brooklyn now?” Allie’s voice thankfully brought Grizz out of his thoughts.

“Yeah, we should probably be getting back,” Magnus agreed, glancing at Alec. “We need to relieve Jace and Isabelle from their acting head duties.” 

“Okay, we’ll get in touch with you in the next couple of days about starting with the transfusions,” Alec promised Allie. 

“That’s fine.” Allie turned to Grizz before continuing. “We still need to confront Jason and Clark about Campbell. Do you want to be there for that?”

“Sure.” Grizz nodded and watched as Allie and Luke turned to leave. “I’m right behind you,” he called to them before addressing Alec and Magnus. “Thank you,” he said just above a whisper to Alec, knowing that Allie and Luke were still within earshot. “I appreciate you saying something to Campbell. I had no idea he had seen me and Sam together.”

Alec shook his head. “Don’t worry about it. No one should say that kind of stuff to anyone. Besides, I was sticking up for  _us_ as much as I was you,” he explained, nodding once towards his husband beside him.

“So, what was that about anyways?” Magnus raised an eyebrow as he glanced between the two of them. 

“Grizz?” Allie called from the sidewalk.

“Coming,” he called over his shoulder, before giving Alec permission. “You can tell him.”

Alec glanced between them uncertainly for a moment. “You sure?”

Grizz gave him a reassuring smile, before nodding. “Yeah, it’s fine.” With that, he turned and ran to catch up with Allie and Luke. 

“So . . . what is going on with Sam and Grizz?” Magnus asked, drawing out the first word in confusion. 

“I’ll explain on the way back,” Alec promised, “but we also need to figure out how much we are going to eventually tell these mundanes. They’ve already worked out that they are in another dimension, and now this thing with the trees . . . We have to tell them at some point where we are.”

Magnus let out a heavy sigh as the pair started to make their way back down the street. “I know. I would like to discuss it with Meliorn first though. We need to figure out what the residents in West Ham have to do with all of this.”

* * *

Will leaned forward in his seat, resting his elbows on his knees as he studied Jason and Clark who were looking anxiously between each other. 

“Well,” Allie demanded as she stood in the center of her living room with her arms folded across her chest, glaring at the two boys that just a couple days ago she would have thought that she could trust with her life. “Would either of you like to tell me what you were doing conspiring with Campbell?” 

“Why are you asking us?” Clark asked, sheepishly looking up at her. “It sounds like Luke already told you what happened.”

“He told me  _what_ happened. I want to know  _why_ ,” she said, her voice growing louder in frustration. 

Luke and Grizz sat side by side on the other couch that was in the room, listening to the uncomfortable exchange between their young leader and the terrified teens before them. 

“Campbell promised us that he and Harry would take our ideas for running the town into consideration if we helped him gather some inside information on you and reported back to him.” Jason shrugged shyly, frowning at his hands as he spoke. “That’s more than what you’ve given us.”

“Have I really been doing such a bad job at this that even my ‘bodyguards’ want to get rid of me?”

“It’s not like that,” Clark insisted. “Everything was fine until you blindsided us with saying that we couldn’t run in the election for Mayor.”

Grizz frowned at this. “What do you mean you can’t run in the election?” he asked.

“It wouldn’t work,” Allie explained. “It’s the same idea as with Greg Dewey’s trial. Just like how you couldn’t be on the jury and then execute him, you can’t make the rules and then enforce them. The two need to stay separate.” 

“That’s fucked up,” Clark declared as he leaned back in his seat, no sign of the shy and anxious boy that was there a moment ago.

“The point is, we can’t have you guys hanging around with us, and then going to spill stuff to Campbell and Harry,” Will stepped in, trying to cool the tension that was growing in the room with Clark’s outburst. “How do we know we can trust you after learning about this?”

Jason and Clark shared an uncomfortable look with each other, and an uneasy silence stretched over the room.

Grizz stood up, breaking the tension that had settled in the room. 

“Why don’t we discuss this in the kitchen?” Grizz advised. “You two wait here,” he informed Jason and Clark, and then led the way into the other room; Allie, Luke, and Will followed close behind him.

Entering the kitchen, Grizz took a seat at one of the stools by the island.

“So, what do you guys think?” Allie asked, taking the seat next to Grizz.

“My biggest concern is how we would prevent them from talking to Campbell if they decide to help him in taking power. Can we arrest them for this?” Luke asked, slouching against the island.

“They haven’t done anything yet,” Allie reminded.

“I’m still confused as to why you told them they can’t put their names down as candidates for Mayor,” Grizz said.

“You guys are like the military . . . or the police. The military can’t run for office-”

“No, I’m with you on that,” Grizz interrupted her. “They can’t be  _both_ the Mayor of the town  _and_ on the Guard, but I still don’t see why they can’t put their names down to run. If one of them happens to win the election, then fine, they can’t be a member of the Guard any more. I’m sure we could find someone else to take their place as a Guard member if need be. Someone else that was on the football team maybe?”

There was a short moment of silence as Allie considered Grizz’s words, biting her bottom lip gentle. “I see your point . . . But still, after what happened, what they almost did, trying to backstab me, I don’t think Jason or Clark should be allowed to run after this. It would be like rewarding them for bad behavior.” 

Will nodded. “Agree. So what do you want to do with them now? Let them go with a warning?”

Allie let out a long sigh. “Yeah,” she said hesitatingly. “Besides, we don’t really have any evidence that they were  _truly_ planning on going through with it, right?” she asked, turning to look at Luke. “Did they actually agree to help Campbell and Harry when you guys talked with them?”

Luke slowly shook his head as he thought back to a couple days ago. “No . . . I mean, when Campbell gave them the drugs it was more of an incentive to try and get them on his side. A ‘there's more where that came from if you help me’ kind of thing. They didn’t agree to anything on the spot.”

Allie nodded in understanding. “Okay, then we’ll let them off with a warning, but under no circumstances can either Jason or Clark run for Mayor. Luke, if you still want to run, I guess you can . . . As long as you fully understand that if you win, you are off the Guard.”

Luke nodded quickly. “Understood.” 

“So, what about the issue of keeping Campbell and Harry away from Jason and Clark?” Grizz asked. “How are we going to enforce that?”

“Can’t we just tell them not to contact each other and if we find out they are going back on that agreement, we’ll have them arrested for conspiring against our leader?” Luke tried to reason. “You know, something similar to a restraining order?”

“We don’t really have any way to enforce that,” Will pointed out. “With a restraining order, one of the parties would willingly call in the violation to the agreement, but in this situation, if they wanted to meet up in secret, I doubt any of them would call to turn themselves in.” 

“Maybe we could talk to Alec and Magnus about it?” Grizz jumped in, an idea slowly forming in his mind. “A temporary banishment to New York to create some space between them for a little while?”

“That could work,” Luke agreed.

Allie considered the idea. “Which pair would we banish?”

“Personally, I think it would be nice to give us a break from Campbell for a little while,” Will admitted. 

After another moment of consideration, Allie nodded her head. “We can talk to them about it when they return in a couple days.”


	13. Thirteen

**Chapter 13**

A few days later, Alec found himself back in West Ham, sitting at Allie’s kitchen table. Catarina had accompanied him this time to finalize their plans to get the blood donations under way and help answer any possible questions that they may have on the proceedings. Across from them, Allie sat with her hands folded on the table. 

“Last time we talked, I believe we decided we were going to schedule thirty teens a week to get their blood drawn?” Alec said. “Have you started organizing a list of who will give blood when?”

“I’ve put Gordie in charge of that. He already has a list of everyone on his computer after helping us plan the daily work schedules. It shouldn’t take much time for him to create a chart for us on who will give blood each week,” Allie explained. 

“So, how does this whole process work?” Will asked, sending Catarina a skeptical look. He was obviously still uneasy about the whole idea, but Allie was just relieved that he seemed to have at least relented to her decision on this matter. 

“There are a few health questions I would need to ask everyone to make sure they are acceptable candidates for this, but the donation itself should only take about eight to ten minutes per person,”Catarina patiently explained. “Afterwards, we suggest you rest for a few minutes and drink some water, so that your body can adjust to the slight decrease in fluid, but after that you can continue on with your normal day.” 

“Have you had any further complaints about this . . . arrangement since the meeting?” Alec asked Allie. 

“Not really,” Allie admitted. “A few disapproving stares and such, but nobody has said anything directly to me. Hopefully that means that most of them realize the good that will come out of this deal for  _us_ in return.” 

Alec nodded his head slowly at this.

“Do you guys have any more questions for me?” Catarina asked.

Allie and Will shared a short look before Allie responded. “I think we're all set with the donation process . . . but Alec, there is something else that we need to discuss with  _you_ .” 

“Go ahead.”

Allie let out a small sigh before continuing. “As you know, we’ve been having a problem recently with some of our residents trying to get a group together to force me out of my position. Jason and Clark are basically on house arrest for now. We haven’t wanted to risk them going to talk to Campbell and Harry behind our backs if we sent them out on their own. We’ve only been letting them out if Luke and Grizz are accompanying them,” she explained. “We were wondering if we could send Campbell and Harry to New York with you and Magnus for a while, temporarily banishing them from West Ham until we can get the elections underway.” 

Allie caught the concerned look that Catarina shot Alec.

Alec frowned as he puzzled the request over. “If we did take them in for a while, was there some kind of punishment you wanted us to enforce on our end?”

Will shook his head. “We just don’t want the four of them to secretly be meeting up and talking behind our backs, making plans to take power away from us by force,” he elaborated. 

An awkward pause followed as Alec and Catarina shared another apprehensive look between each other. 

“So, you want us to let a psychopathic teenager have free range of Brooklyn and our people?” Alec asked hesitantly.

“At least he would be surrounded by adults in New York,” Will noted, seemingly as confused as Allie was about the pair's sudden mood change. “Surely you have doctors or therapists or someone there that could help you handle him for a few weeks.”

“Let me talk it over with Magnus. We’ll see if we can work something out to help you with them,” Alec relented after another short pause. 

“Where is Magnus?” Allie asked.

“He got held up in another meeting,” Catarina answered for Alec. 

* * *

It had been over a week since he and Sam had had any form of a ‘date night’ and Grizz could tell how excited Sam was about their afternoon plans. Grizz tried to block everything out to focus on his boyfriend, but apprehension was tickling just under the surface of his skin.

Grizz poured the bag of chips into a bowl as he waited for the popcorn to finish popping in the microwave. With their snacks in hand, he ventured back into his living room to find Sam slipping his movie selection into the DVD player. 

With a small smile on his lips, Grizz took in the scene. Sam had pushed the coffee table towards the side of the couch, freeing up the space between the furniture and the TV. One of his mom’s fleece blankets was now spread out on top of the white carpet, creating an indoor picnic-like setup for their date. 

After retrieving the remote, Sam took a seat on the blanket and held a hand out for one of the bowls as Grizz approached. Making themselves comfortable on the floor, Grizz sat close enough to Sam that their knees brushed against each other; the two bowls in front of them to share. 

As the movie started, Grizz tried to pay attention to the storyline but it couldn’t hold his attention. Instead, with his eyes on the screen, his mind played back the conversation that he had with Campbell the other day. 

The fact that the psychopath could possibly know about his feelings for Sam was bad enough, but the taunting tone of his voice worried Grizz even more. It was the cruel look in his eyes. The promise that something more was being planned for them. Campbell wanted him to be scared, and his caustic attitude was working in his favor.

Grizz let out a shaky breath as he reached for another chip from the quickly depleting bowl. Shaking off the memory, he turned back to the movie, determined to enjoy the remaining time he had with Sam that night. 

Soft fingers on his forearm drew Grizz out of his attempt to lose himself in the film and he turned, sending a questioning look towards Sam. The redhead tapped his knuckles against his chin, forming the sign that Grizz recognized as _‘What’s wrong?’_

Grizz sighed. He had been putting this conversation off, but Sam deserved to know what was going on. Keeping secrets was not how he wanted to start off their relationship. 

Picking up the remote, Grizz paused the movie before turning to face his boyfriend more comfortably on the floor. 

“Do you know what your brother has been up to lately?” he started, signing what he knew. 

At the mention of Campbell, one of Sam’s eyebrows raised in surprise and he shook his head.

“Campbell has been making plans to overthrow Allie to allow Harry to take over as Mayor,” he explained. “He even tried to get Jason and Clark to feed him information from the inside.”

“Does Allie know?”

Grizz nodded. “Luke told her everything,” he assured. “But now, Allie needs to figure out what she is going to do with Campbell and Harry. She can’t just let Jason and Clark roam free with the possibility of them deciding to help them. She’s going to talk to Alec and Magnus about seeing if Campbell and Harry can spend some time in Brooklyn.”

“Yeah,” Sam agreed. “That’s probably a good idea.”

“For another reason too.” 

Sam narrowed his eyes at this, silently encouraging him to elaborate. 

“I think Campbell is on to us,” Grizz said. “After the meeting a few days ago, Campbell said that he knows we have been hanging out together. He started questioning me, asking me why I was talking to you.”

Sam fidgeted nervously on the floor. “What did you tell him?”

“I told him we were friends. I figured that would be better than admitting to him that we are dating,” he explained. “It didn’t sound like he believed me though. I assume he must have seen us together around town somewhere. I don’t know what exactly he saw.”

Seeing the redhead bite his lip gently, Grizz reached forward to grab his hand. “Hey, try not to worry about this too much, okay? If Alec and Magnus agree to let him stay in Brooklyn-”

Sam shook his head. “That would only buy us time. We would have to face him at some point.”

Noticing the fear in his boyfriend’s eyes, Grizz pulled the smaller boy closer to him, holding him in his arms.

In high school, he and his friends had seen Sam in the hallways sporting a black eye or other bruises over his skin from time to time. Grizz had heard different stories about them over the years, and not all of them were accusing his brother. But after hearing Sam talk about what Campbell was caught doing to their pet bird when they were kids, Grizz didn’t have to think too hard about what he had really endured all his life. 

The idea of Sam experiencing any further pain at Campbell’s expense, especially over  _him_ , was inexcusable to Grizz. The thought of this boy in his arms being scared, bruised, and bleeding . . . He would have gone through it himself if it could have meant sparing Sam all of that pain, and he wasn’t going to let it happen again.

* * *

Magnus sat in a chair at the small table that resided under one of the huge oak trees in the Seelie realm, tapping his fingers against the surface irritably. Other than the soft thumping, the forest was relatively quiet. 

Both the table and chairs were made out of branches and vines that twisted and weaved their way into the appropriate shapes with a few leaves sticking out from various places. 

The warlock sat up straight at the sound of crunching leaves and sighed in relief at the sight of one of his oldest friends.

“You’re late,” Magnus complained, but he allowed a smirk to play on his lips to let the Seelie know he wasn’t actually that upset.

“I am sorry, Magnus,” Merlion said, taking a seat in the other available chair, “but as you can imagine, the Seelie Queen has had a lot on her plate lately. She has become more demanding in her errands.”

Magnus hummed in acceptance to this. “Has he made an appearance in front of the Queen yet?”

“Not yet,” the Seelie sighed. “I’m afraid no one has heard from Pfeiffer since your city has appeared in our realm.”

“How well do you know Pfeiffer?”

“We were kids together,” Merlion explained. “He was always extremely cunning; even for a faery.”

“Do you have any idea why he sent us here? What is he planning?”

“I have no idea,” Merlion said. “And until he shows his face in the court, we can only guess at what he wants out of all this.”

“We are not the only lives that he is messing with anymore, Merlion,” Magnus groaned. “There is another town, from Connecticut, that has gotten caught up in this.”

“What?” Merlion asked, an eyebrow going up in surprise. “I assure you, Magnus, this is the first I am hearing of this.”

Magnus relaxed back in his chair at his confession. Seelies couldn’t lie.

“Is it like in Brooklyn?” Merlion questioned. “Shadowhunters and Downworlders?”

Magnus shook his head. “Mundanes. All teenagers.”

Merlion blinked in shock at this. “How did Pfeiffer get  _them_ here?” he wondered aloud.

Magnus wasn’t sure if it was a rhetorical question or not, but he answered anyways. “They explained their side of things to Alec last week,” he said before going into details of what his husband had explained to him about the bad smell and the kids leaving soon after for a field trip. 

When Magnus had finished with his story, the Seelie shook his head in bafflement. “I’m afraid I don’t have any answers for you at the moment,” Merlion sighed. 

The warlock nodded slowly in acceptance. 

“They have already figured out they are in a different dimension,” Magnus admitted. “They know something is amiss with the forest too.”

“Yes,” Merlion drew out the word as he leaned back in his seat. “Our vast, maze-like forest is probably puzzling to them. I would advise that they don’t spend too much time roaming the landscape. They could easily get lost out here.”

Magnus tapped his fingers rhymically against the table in the silence that followed.

“What about the dimensional doorway?” Magnus eventually asked. “Any luck in locating our portal home?”

“No, nothing yet,” Merlion sighed. “Pfeiffer must have messed with the doorway; blocked off our ability to access certain dimensions. We should have found it by now otherwise.”

“What about the mundanes? Do you think you could at least get  _them_ back home?”

Merlion shook his head sadly. “If Pfeiffer blocked off our access to  _your_ dimension, I highly doubt he would have left  _their_ portal open. Until we find him and figure out what he is planning, I’m afraid you are all stuck in the Seelie realm.”

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you like my story so far! Please leave a Kudos and/or a review. I would love to know what you guys think. Thanks for reading!!


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